Welfare at Slaughter Concerns Raised Across Europe

A European parliamentary group has called on the European Commission to phase out slaughter methods, which it says cause intense suffering to animals, such as slaughter without stunning, the use of CO₂ stunning for pigs and the use of electrical water-bath stunners for poultry.

The demand followed presentations by animal welfare NGOs, which analysed the impact on animal welfare of the new Council Regulation No 1099/2009 concerning the slaughter of animals.

The plea to the Commission follows the 310th session of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

The Regulation came into force on 1 January 2013 and were designed to improve the conditions and welfare of animals at time of killing.

However, the Eurogroup for Animals, Eyes on Animals and Gaia said that the improvements have been very limited and that methods, which are a major source of suffering, pain or distress are still widely used.

They added that the Food and Veterinary Office audits conducted since 2013 in 14 Member States had shown that the regulation is not being correctly implemented and enforced.

Michel Courat, the Senior Policy Officer for farm animals at Eurogroup for Animals analysed the regulation and welcomed some of its positive points, such as the obligation for staff to receive a training, or the obligation for abattoirs to have an Animal Welfare Officer.

But he denounced also the negative points of the legislation, such as the possibility of still using CO₂ gas for pigs, and electrical water-bath stunners for poultry.

This week, a Halal seminar in \Warwickshire organised by the British beef and lamb levy board Eblex, heard that the Halal lamb sector in the UK saw the 2.9 million Muslim community holding 30 per cent of the lamb consumption.

Concerns were raised that Halal is not understood by the majority of the population and that welfare concerns are an integral part of production and religious slaughter.

However, there were clashes with the British farming representatives calling for the end of non-stun slaughter claiming that the welfare issues had been broadly described by organisations such as the British Veterinary Association and the RSPCA.