News From : DagangHalal.com (30 Mar 2009)
The EU Agriculture Committee has approved a proposal to update the rules on animal welfare at slaughter, giving the green light to halal poultry.
MEPs approved the principle that animals must be slaughtered only using methods that ensure death instantly or after stunning, except in the case of religious rituals, such as halal, for which they called for the current blanket exemption to be preserved.
However, an amendment calling for special labelling of products of religious slaughter was rejected, as were calls for stunning to be made compulsory before the animals’ throats are cut, something which religious communities oppose.
While MEPs were in favour of the appointment of an animal welfare officer for each slaughterhouse, they stressed that responsibility for ensuring compliance with the rules must lie with the operator or company, not with an individual employee who cannot oversee enforcement of the rules.
But to ensure small slaughterhouses remain viable, they argued that establishments slaughtering up to 150,000 units of poultry per year, should be exempted from this rule.
Source: Farmers Weekly Interactive