EU: Polish attorney general wants probe into halal, kosher slaughter

Polish Attorney General Andrzej Seremet has asked the Constitutional Tribunal to review whether halal and kosher ritual slaughter violates the country’s animal treatment laws, local media reported Friday.

Seremet said the Agriculture Ministry violated the constitution when it allowed halal and kosher slaughter houses to kill animals without stunning them first, as is required by Polish law.

Animal rights activists asked Seremet to review the issue, saying the methods were cruel and caused animals unnecessary pain.

Muslims and Jews kill animals for meat in ritual slaughter with a single quick cut to the throat that they believe minimizes the animal’s pain and suffering.

There are some 20 slaughter houses in Poland that kill animals using halal and kosher methods to provide meat for the country’s small Muslim and Jewish communities and for export to countries like Turkey and Israel, TVN 24 reported.

President Bronislaw Komorowski has spoken up against Dutch plans to outlaw the practice, which he said “targets the Muslim and Jewish community.”

European Union laws require animals to be stunned before they are killed, but make an exception for ritual slaughter.

Source: GNA
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Meanwhile, according to Polskie Radio today, in Poland, the country’s attorney general, Andrzej Seremet, has submitted an application to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal after a number of non-governmental organizations claimed that the Ministry of Agriculture had “exceeded its legal rights” in creating an exception for ritual slaughter from the requirement that animals be stunned before they are slaughtered.
In May, Poland’s Agricultural Minister Marek Sawicki rejected demands of animal rights activists to end kosher and halal slaughter in Poland.