La situazione attuale in Europa: dati del progetto DIALREL

1. La situazione attuale in Europa: dati del progetto DIALREL Antonio Velarde IRTA Monells

2. CONTENT • Introduction: Religious slaughter and welfare • Survey: • Competent authority • Abattoir • Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION Council Directive 93/119/EC on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter or killing (1993): • Legislation in EU requires pre-slaughter stunning • Exemption for animals slaughtered by religious methods

4. RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER Two types : • Muslim method for the production of Halal. • Jewish method (Shechita) for the production of Kosher. It is a requirement that animals must be alive, healthy and have suffered no injury at the time of slaughter To meet these requirements, slaughter without stunning is performed in licensed slaughterhouses or occasionally during religious festivals on communal grounds.

5. SLAUGHTER WITHOUT STUNNING It impairs animal welfare: • Stressfulness of restraint method • Pain due to incision • Latency of onset of complete insensibility

6. Restraining method Welfare (Dunn, 1990)

7. 2. INCISION • Neck cutting: severing skin, muscle, carotid artery, jugular vein, trachea, oesophagus • The cut involves substantial tissue damage • Pain system (nociceptors) • Multiple cuts and large wounds usually elicit major pain responses.

8. 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS • Severing major blood vessels • Consciousness is gradually lost • During consciousness, animals can feel anxiety, pain and distress • The duration depends on the sticking method • Any intervention until the animal is dead should be avoided

9. TÍTOL DEL POWER POINT. PRESENTACIÓ 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS 32 - 126 s 8 s (EFSA, 2004)

10. 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS Time to death Gregory and Wotton (1984)

11. 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS Cutting both the common carotid arteries in the neck and jugular: 25 s

12. RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER • Slaughter without stunning can impair welfare • Greater concern for animal welfare (Treaty of Amsterdam) • Increase of the demand for religious slaughter products Dilemma: • Freedom of religious vs. Protection of animal welfare

13. CURRENT PRACTICE Religious slaughter with stunning • Some local Islamic authorities accept a stunning methods as long as it does not kill the animals • Voluntary agreements with Muslim and Jewish communities to stun after slaughter • Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have banned any slaughter practice without prior stunning

14. DIALREL 2.1 Incidence and scale of religious slaughter practices 2.2 Current methods of religious slaughter 2.3 Recommendations for optimum slaughter practices

15. Countries • UK • Germany • Spain • France • The Netherlands • Italy • Israel • Australia • Turkey • Egypt

16. Methodology Data collection: 2 types of questionnaires • To competent authorities • Aim: To collect data about the number of animal slaughtered in each country according to the religious practice. • Nr of animals slaughtered • Percentage of Halal and Shechita • Percentage of animal stunned (before and after) • Export of Halal and Kosher meat (inside and outside) • Abattoirs

17. Methodology Data collection: 2 types of questionnaires • 2. To abattoirs • Aim: To collect information of the methods of practices in the abattoirs. • Nr of animals slaughtered for Halal and Shechita • Percentage of Halal/ shechita. • Percentage of animal stunned • When are they stunned • Stunning method • Time between neck cutting and other proceduce • Religious festival (no in Shechita)

18. Conclusions • Little information about the number of animals slaughtered for Halal and Kosher. • Some cattle, small ruminants and poultry slaughtered for Halal are stunned prior (or after) sticking. • Non stunned cattle are turned on their back or sticking in upright position. • Hoisted before sticking is carried out • In stunned animals, the stunning system is the same. • Time to any further intervention may be too short

19. Thank you for your attention Antonio.Velarde@irta.es