Poland to reintroduce kosher, halal slaughter methods

Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a press conference following Tuesday's cabinet session: photo - PAP/Radek Pietruszka

The practices of Jewish shechita and Muslim dhabiha livestock slaughter, which see animals killed without prior stunning, were banned in December 2012 by Poland's Constitutional Court following a campaign led by animal rights groups.

However, Poland's agricultural minister Stanislaw Kalemba warned that by outlawing the predominantly export business, several thousand jobs would be lost.

According to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, “the new regulations on the matter will however eliminate the most shocking methods of animal slaughter,” as outlined at a press conference on Tuesday, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Tusk specified that the slaughter of animals in rotating cages is one practice that will not be reinstated.

According to that practice, an animal is placed in a steel cage that is turned upside down, with just the head sticking out, and then the throat is cut.

The amendment to the law on the protection of animals will likewise insist that any slaughter of livestock according to kosher and halal methods is done in a slaughterhouse itself.

Tusk added that the ministers of the environment and agriculture had been assigned to work on “reducing the suffering of animals as much as is possible,” both concerning ritual livestock slaughter, and the general status quo in Polish abattoirs. (nh)