Now the chickens have to suffer ...................... in the UK..... is Australia next
Chickens face painful death after slaughter rules change
Millions of chickens will suffer painful deaths because ministers want to protect “religious freedoms” for Muslims and Jews.
The government is refusing to introduce a more reliable method of stunning the animals before they are killed, according to vets. Rules coming into force in England tomorrow could result in birds remaining conscious and able to feel pain after being dipped in an electrical water bath.
The British Veterinary Association complained to ministers after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs deleted a sentence from a draft of the rules which would have ensured that chickens were properly stunned.
Research by the European Food Safety Authority has suggested that the combination of electric frequency and current used by some halal abattoirs may only immobilise some birds, meaning that they continue to feel pain as their throats are cut and until they die.
Halal producers fear that European Union rules on stunning could result in some chickens dying before their throats are cut, meaning that the meat could not be defined as halal. Animals have to be capable of recovering from the stun in order for stunning to be consistent with halal principles.
The BVA said a key sentence was missing from the final version of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing regulations. It said a draft published by Defra had contained a sentence which stated that when animals were stunned before religious slaughter, they must be “stunned in accordance with the EU Regulation and Schedule 1”.
That schedule requires that the “strength and duration of the current used is such that the poultry are immediately rendered unconscious and remain so until dead”. The missing sentence is included in the versions of the regulations already introduced in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Sean Wensley, the BVA president, has written to George Eustice, the farming minister, asking him to clarify why the rules appear to leave chickens vulnerable to suffering a painful death. He said: “The omission of specific parameters for electrical water bath stunning leaves poultry vulnerable to ineffective stunning.”
David Bowles, assistant director of the RSPCA, said: “Defra has bowed to external pressure from the halal industry and small slaughterhouses and animal welfare has been sacrificed as a result. Millions of chickens are being slaughtered in a way which may cause needless suffering.
“Why has England continued to permit this when Wales and Northern Ireland have implemented the [EU] legislation in full?”
A Defra spokeswoman said: “The only difference between England and Wales is that, in England, where stunning is used before religious slaughter, it should be sufficient to spare the animal avoidable pain, suffering and distress. In Wales, there are electrical parameters that must be adhered to.”
She did not respond when asked why the rules in England appeared not to require the same “electrical parameters”.
The Conservative manifesto contained a commitment to “protect methods of religious slaughter, such as [Jewish] shechita and halal”.
Under EU rules, animals can be slaughtered under these religious methods without being stunned. No animals slaughtered under the shechita method are stunned.
Most animals killed by halal abattoirs are stunned but there is debate among Muslims over whether stunning should be permitted.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/article4604119.ece
Wait for the revenge of the chickens
