Belgium’s biggest region votes to outlaw unstunned slaughter

Photo: A shopper selecting packaged meat in the refrigerated section of a Carrefour Hypermarket, a French multinational retailer, and large hypermarket chain, in Malmedy, Walloon, Belgium on July 27, 2015. Defotoberg / Shutterstock.com

The environment committee of the Belgian region of Walloon voted on May 5th to outlaw all unstunned animal slaughter on grounds of animal welfare.

The ban will come into effect on September 2019 if parliament approves it later this month.

Addressing Muslim and Jewish concerns about an infringement of their religious rights to not stun animals pre-slaughter, the committee said in its meeting last week that the ban is not targeted at any community or the religious freedoms of any community. Instead, it stressed the need to eliminate or reduce animal suffering prior to slaughter.

In the European Union, EU regulation 1099/2009 specifies mandatory pre-slaughter stunning for all animals but it makes exceptions for religious slaughtering according to directive 93/119/EC.

In Europe, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland have outlawed unstunned animal slaughter.

According to Walloon’s environment committee meeting report, stunned slaughter is already mandatory in the region for poultry and rabbits. The proposed ban will cover stunned slaughter for all animals, including bovines. 

Walloon’s proposed transition of two years and three months takes into consideration the need for compulsory training of all slaughterers and slaughterhouses to ensure pre-slaughter stunning is conducted properly, and to ensure no loss of market share for the region’s meat producers as a result of the ban.

There is no exact data for Walloon’s halal and kosher markets but according to most recent study by the Belgian ministry of agriculture and fishery in 2013, the country’s halal food industry was estimated at 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

Walloon minister of environment, transport and animal welfare, Carlo Di Antonio said during the meeting that Islamic countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan allow the import, sale and consumption of pre-slaughter stunned animals.

A key point raised by Shariah scholars against stunning is that it can kill the animal before slaughtering, which would render it un-halal. Benchmark halal standards from Malaysia and the Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries (SMIIC) both allow stunning with certain restrictions and specified parameters.

Di Antonio added that New Zealand, a major halal sheep meat exporter, has faced no issues from Islamic countries for adopting a similar stunning policy.

He also said he has started discussions with slaughterhouses on a new label for Walloon-slaughtered meat products to reflect the region’s commitment to stunned slaughtering and animal welfare.

He said the label will set apart Walloon-grade meat from those coming from Brazil or Argentina whose standards of animal rearing and slaughtering are little known.

Walloon is the biggest of three self-governing regions in Belgium and is home to around a third of the country’s 11.4 million people. Muslims make up around 6 percent of the country’s population.

Belgium’s second-largest region of Flanders submitted a proposal in March to ban unstunned animal slaughter, which prompted criticism from its Muslim and Jewish communities.

© SalaamGateway.com 2017 All Rights Reserved