The ECJ allows the restriction of slaughter

AFor animal welfare reasons, ritual slaughter of animals without stunning may be prohibited. The Court of Justice of the European Union decided on Friday and thus further restricted the controversial massacre. The judges deviated from the opinion of the Advocate General at their trial. He had argued that an exception should be made to the protection of animal welfare for religious rites.

That was in line with the plaintiffs. Several Jewish and Muslim associations had sued the Belgian Constitutional Court against a 2017 decree from the Flemish Region that prohibited the slaughter of animals without prior stunning. The Constitutional Court then asked the CJEU for a preliminary ruling because the plaintiffs were invoking an EU regulation.

This 2009 ordinance basically requires animals to be reversibly stunned prior to slaughter, but allows exceptions to preserve freedom of religion. However, member states can enact national regulations that protect animal welfare more comprehensively. The Flemish Region invoked this.

The ECJ now emphasizes that the legislature wanted to give the states “a wide margin of appreciation.” The flamingos would have used it. His decree only restricted “one aspect of the specific ritual act.” That is why it is also allowed to cut the neck of the animal – stunned – and let it bleed. Furthermore, it is likely that meat products from ritual slaughter will continue to be sold in another Member State.

The ECJ had already restricted slaughter in 2018, and this case also came from Flanders. In 2014, the region decreed that animals could only be ritually slaughtered in approved slaughterhouses and no longer in temporary slaughterhouses. Muslim associations complained of unacceptable interference with their religious freedom. The judges, however, found the rules for animal protection and consumer protection appropriate. They also rejected the argument that the demand for ritually slaughtered animals could only be met by additional slaughterhouses before the Muslim feast of slaughter. This problem affects “only a small number of municipalities” in Flanders.

In Germany, the slaughter of animals without stunning is generally prohibited, but the Federal Constitutional Court approved an exception in 2002 for reasons of religious freedom: if the meat of the slaughtered animal is consumed by people who are prohibited from eating the meat of animals they have not been sacrificed by mandatory religious standards. However, the slaughter must be carried out by a competent person in an authorized and registered slaughterhouse and supervised by the responsible veterinary office.