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According to the ECJ, stunning cattle for slaughter is a permissible restriction on the religious freedom of Jews and Muslims.
Brussels. In its third relevant ruling in just two and a half years, the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) also specified the restrictions allowed on slaughter by member states. For example, according to ruling C-336/19 published Thursday, states can require stunning of cattle for slaughter prior to slaughter. This restricts the practice of the religion by Jews and Muslims. Jewish and Muslim associations that had challenged a decree in the Belgian region of Flanders argued in their complaint against that decree that their religious commandments required that cattle be slaughtered in full consciousness to bleed them out. However, the ECJ weighed this argument against animal welfare, as set out in Article 13 of the EU Treaty and specified in the 2009 EU regulation on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter. He concluded that the Flemish decree established a proper balance between religious freedom and animal welfare. After all, ritual slaughter is not forbidden in Flanders, but it is an area where there is scientific consensus that “pre-stunning is the best way to reduce animal suffering”. Incidentally, the ECJ ignored the opinion of Attorney General Gerard Hogan, who had found that killing without anesthesia was justified in light of religious freedom.
In its two previous rulings on slaughter, the ECJ ruled on May 29, 2018 that ritual slaughter can only take place in approved slaughterhouses, and on February 26, 2019 that meat from slaughtered animals should not be sold as certified organic. (Let’s go)
(“Die Presse”, print edition, December 18, 2020)
