Help end pig CO2 gassing

The UK government is consulting on ending CO₂ gassing of pigs, and you can respond (closes 21 December).

The proposal is to phase out high-concentration CO₂ stunning, with Defra's preferred option a three-year transition. 

Alternatives on the table are argon and automated electrical stunning, but Defra's modelling assumes most slaughterhouses would pick argon, which would mean swapping one gas for another in the same chambers. Project Slingshot (an animal welfare activist group) points out that the government's own advisory committee says inert gases "do not render the animals near-instantaneously unconscious", which suggests electrical stunning may be the better option.

You can respond here, on transition length and which alternative should replace CO₂: https://consultations.defra.gov.uk/phasing-out-carbon-dioxide-stunning-of-pigs

Things you might want to include:

• Costs. AHDB estimates CO₂ stunning costs about 42p per pig, versus £1.36–1.49 for argon and about £1.11 for electrical.
• Scale. Roughly 10 million pigs a year are stunned with CO₂ in the UK, so each extra year of transition means about that many more pigs going through it. Pigs exposed to high concentrations show clear signs of distress and adverse reactions.
• Moral weight. Rethink Priorities' median welfare range estimate for pigs is 0.515 relative to humans (5th–95th percentile: 0.005–1.03). That roughly means a pig's range of possible suffering and wellbeing may be about half a human's, with a lot of uncertainty.

The consultation seems to be open to anyone, including people outside the UK, so I'd recommend filling it in.