Workshop on the slaughter of animals prescribed by religious rites in slaughterhouses
Date: 12 diciembre 2017
Section: Seguridad Alimentaria
The Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition, following the programming for their plan of activities for the current year, on 28 November, held a workshop on the slaughter of animals prescribed by religious rites in slaughterhouses, directed at all the competent authorities and held at their head offices in Calle de Alcalá.
There were 40 participants, representing almost all of the Autonomous Communities, at the workshop, which was a great success. The results of the assessment questionnaires submitted by the participants indicate the success of the workshop, with excellent marks being awarded to both the speakers and the organisation.
The workshop is one more example of the work carried out by AECOSAN, in collaboration with the Autonomous Communities and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment, in recent years in the area of animal welfare; work which is mainly performed through the working group created for this purpose and in which representatives from all the above bodies take part.
The results of this work are the different documents which have been agreed with all the competent authorities, and which address different areas in this field, including training, animal transport to the slaughterhouse and emergency slaughters on the farm. All these can be consulted on the AECOSAN web page.
El Regulation (EC) 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing includes the derogation from stunning in case of religious slaughter, leaving, however, a certain level of subsidiarity to each Member State.
The increase in Spain of the number of slaughters has led the competent authorities to require the need to address the aspects arising from this activity in coordination.
For this purpose, a document is being prepared within the working group for animal welfare which was addressed during the workshop, as well as dealing with the legislation and future expectation in this area, the outlook in other Member States and the scientific basis.
At the end of the workshop, the participants worked in groups to review some of the more controversial points.
Thanks to the quality of the speakers and the active participation of the participants, the results of the discussions will permit progress in the document which is currently being drafted in order to improve the management of the animal welfare aspects related to this type of slaughter.
