1. La situazione attuale in Europa: dati del progetto DIALREL Antonio Velarde IRTA Monells

2. CONTENT Introduction: Religious slaughter and welfare Survey: - Competent authority - Abattoir Conclusion

3. Legislation in EU requires pre-slaughter stunning INTRODUCTION Exemption for animals slaughtered by religious methods Council Directive 93/119/EC on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter or killing (1993):

4. RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER Two types : Muslim method for the production of Halal. Jewish method (Shechita) for the production of Kosher. It is a requirement that animals must be alive, healthy and have suffered no injury at the time of slaughter To meet these requirements, slaughter without stunning is performed in licensed slaughterhouses or occasionally during religious festivals on communal grounds.

5. SLAUGHTER WITHOUT STUNNING It impairs animal welfare: 1.Stressfulness of restraint method 2.Pain due to incision 3.Latency of onset of complete insensibility

6. Welfare Action/behaviourRotary casting pen Upright position Mean time from entering the pen until ready for cut 103.8 s ± 18.411.1 s ± 11.6 Total time of struggling before cut 11.2 s ± 71.2 s ± 3.8 Number of vocalisations 4.6 ± 6.10.3 ± 0.75 (Dunn, 1990) Restraining method

7. 2. INCISION Neck cutting: severing skin, muscle, carotid artery, jugular vein, trachea, oesophagus The cut involves substantial tissue damage Pain system (nociceptors) Multiple cuts and large wounds usually elicit major pain responses.

8. 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS Severing major blood vessels Consciousness is gradually lost During consciousness, animals can feel anxiety, pain and distress The duration depends on the sticking method Any intervention until the animal is dead should be avoided

9. TÍTOL DEL POWER POINT. PRESENTACIÓ 8 s (EFSA, 2004) 32 - 126 s 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS

10. Sticking method Number of sheep Time to loss of brain responsiveness (sec) SD Both carotid & both jugular veins20141 One carotid artery & both jugular veins 8707 No carotid arteries both jugular veins 829834 Gregory and Wotton (1984) Time to death 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS

11. Cutting both the common carotid arteries in the neck and jugular: 25 s 3. TIME TO LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS

12. RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER Greater concern for animal welfare (Treaty of Amsterdam) Slaughter without stunning can impair welfare Dilemma: Freedom of religious vs. Protection of animal welfare Increase of the demand for religious slaughter products

13. CURRENT PRACTICE Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have banned any slaughter practice without prior stunning Voluntary agreements with Muslim and Jewish communities to stun after slaughter Some local Islamic authorities accept a stunning methods as long as it does not kill the animals Religious slaughter with stunning

14. DIALREL 2.1 Incidence and scale of religious slaughter practices 2.2 Current methods of religious slaughter 2.3 Recommendations for optimum slaughter practices

15. Countries UK Germany Spain France The Netherlands Italy Israel Australia Turkey Egypt

16. Methodology 1.To competent authorities Aim: To collect data about the number of animal slaughtered in each country according to the religious practice. -Nr of animals slaughtered -Percentage of Halal and Shechita -Percentage of animal stunned (before and after) -Export of Halal and Kosher meat (inside and outside) -Abattoirs Data collection: 2 types of questionnaires

17. Methodology Data collection: 2 types of questionnaires 2. To abattoirs Aim: To collect information of the methods of practices in the abattoirs. Nr of animals slaughtered for Halal and Shechita Percentage of Halal/ shechita. Percentage of animal stunned When are they stunned Stunning method Time between neck cutting and other proceduce Religious festival (no in Shechita)

18. Conclusions Little information about the number of animals slaughtered for Halal and Kosher. Some cattle, small ruminants and poultry slaughtered for Halal are stunned prior (or after) sticking. Non stunned cattle are turned on their back or sticking in upright position. Hoisted before sticking is carried out In stunned animals, the stunning system is the same. Time to any further intervention may be too short

19. Thank you for your attention Antonio.Velarde@irta.es