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Belgium bans traditional animal slaughter amid renewed debate on animal welfare
As the debate surrounding traditional Halal and Kosher slaughter practices rages in Europe, SBS News takes a look at where Australia sits in the discussion.
Published 9 January 2019 6:26pm
Updated 9 January 2019 6:48pm
By Maani Truu
Image: Belgium is the latest country to ban traditional religious slaughter of meat. (AAP)
Amid clashes between animal welfare groups and religious minorities in Europe, - but they are not the first country to do so.
The move has reignited debate about religious slaughter of animals, which requires that an animal is in good health when it is killed by a single cut to the neck, with animal welfare advocates arguing that to kill animals unsedated is inhumane.
But advocates for Muslim Halal and Jewish Kosher practices argue that it causes the animal less harm than other methods because the cut severs vital arteries, rendering the animal unconscious in seconds.
European Union regulations require that animals are made unconscious before they are slaughtered - this means they are stunned, usually by a 'captive bolt' device, which fires a metal rod into the brain or an electric shock.
Belgium is the latest country to ban traditional religious slaughter of meat. Source: AAP
The debate around traditional religious slaughter largely comes down to whether exceptions should be made for religious purposes and whether meat that was stunned before it was killed can be considered Halal or Kosher.
In Australia, like in Europe, mandatory standards dictate that animals should be sedated when killed, and the vast majority of religious slaughter includes stunning.
Standards for slaughter are covered by the Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption, which states that before slaughter, animals should be “stunned in a way that ensures that the animals are unconscious and insensible to pain”.
According to the RSPCA, the only difference is that for the majority of religious slaughter, a reversible stunning method is used, while conventional slaughter uses an irreversible stunning method.
There are, however, a small number of abattoirs in Australia that have been granted exemptions to conduct religious slaughter on cattle and sheep without stunning. In these cases, the standard states that the animal is stunned without delay after it is killed.
Australia's peak animal rights group, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), states it is “strongly opposed to all forms of slaughter that do not involve prior stunning of the animal” due to an increased risk of animal suffering.
Here are the other countries that have banned traditional religious slaughter
Sweden
Swedish law allows for the import of Halal and Kosher meat that has been slaughtered without sedation, but the country has banned animal slaughter without sedation since 1937. Unlike Australia, there is no exception for religious practices.
Norway
The Norwegian Animal Welfare Act states that animals must be sedated before slaughter and specifically notes that this is also required for religiously slaughtered animals. Halal meat is produced in Norway by Muslims who allow for sedation.
Iceland
Iceland's act on animal welfare, which came into force in 2014, dictates that animals must be sedated before slaughter and makes no religious exceptions. Like Norway, Halal slaughter is allowed in Iceland as long as it includes stunning.
Denmark
In 2014, the Danish government put a . The country allows for religious slaughter, but only if the animal is sedated beforehand.
At the time, the ban was called anti-Semitic by Israel's deputy minister of religious services and slammed by Danish not-for-profit group Danish Halal as an infringement of religious freedom.
Slovenia
Since 2012, Slovenia has banned all religious slaughter of animals.
With New York Times
