Struggle
Any carp that has been taken out of water is suffocating. This is what happens to them during fishing-out, loading on and unloading from lorries, and handling on streets and at markets. Some people choose to buy a living carp and carry them without any water in plastic bags in which they may be suffocating for hours. Sometimes the water in which fish are kept does not contain enough oxygen because there are too many carp in too little space. This is particularly the case in store-ponds, winter ponds and vats.

Unfortunately, this aspect isn't taken seriously enough. The fact that carp survive quite a long time without water says nothing about how they feel about it. Carp need oxygen just as humans do, and when they lack it, they are desperately struggling to breathe, second per second.
- Dr. Andrzej Elzanowski, zoologist, lecturer at Wroclav University.

Carp are not given any food during the last two months before slaughter in order to improve their meat quality. Although carp naturally survive winter without eating, in store-ponds they have much higher energy output because they cannot hibernate. Withholding feed from them, therefore, significantly weakens their immune system, and carp are likely to suffer from feeling of hunger.