Image: Legal stunning requirements for ritual slaughter world map

Description: Legal stunning requirements for ritual slaughter around the world.   Stunning not required   Post-cut stunning required   Simultaneous stunning required   Pre-cut stunning required   Ritual slaughter banned   No data
Title: Legal stunning requirements for ritual slaughter world map
Credit: Own work. Notes: Most countries that restrict or ban ritual slaughter do allow the import of meat from unstunned ritually slaughtered animals. There are many Islamic and Jewish authorities and slaughterhouses that consider meat from stunned ritually slaughtered animals to be halal or kosher, and label and sell it as such. In Belgium, the ban on unstunned ritual slaughter took effect on 1 September 2019 in Wallonia, and on 1 January 2019 in Flanders. There is no ban planned for the Brussels Capital Region yet. The Finnish autonomous province of Åland requires pre-cut stunning, whereas the rest of Finland requires simultaneous cutting and stunning (stunning starts as soon as the first cut is made). In Switzerland and Liechtenstein, poultry that is ritually slaughtered does not have to be stunned. New Zealand: per the Commercial Slaughter Code of Welfare, updated on 1 October 2018, all religious slaughter in New Zealand requires pre-cut stunning, with the exception of Jewish (kosher) slaughter of poultry. Commercial Slaughter Code of Welfare. Minister of Agriculture of New Zealand (1 October 2018). Retrieved on 4 October 2019. In the Netherlands, a veterinarian needs to be present, and the animal has to die within 40 seconds. Animals that don't die within 40 seconds still need to be stunned. In the United Kingdom, about 80% of halal meat comes from stunned animals, even though stunning is legally not required in ritual slaughter in the UK. Slovenia is the only country that has banned all ritual slaughter, and only allows meat production through conventional slaughter. Slovakia requires post-cut stunning (Ferrari & Bottoni 2010; Robinson & Avizienius 2015, Downing 2015), despite the 2018 Law Library of Congress report claiming it doesn't. Ferrari & Bottoni on p. 156 quote the following legislation: 'Government Ordinance on the Requirements for the Protection of Animals at the Time of their Slaughter or Killing as amended on 19 November 2003, article 12, paragraph 6: 'Animals slaughtered according to specific religious methods must be rendered unconscious conforming to Annex no. 4 directly after the beginning of the religious slaughter at the latest. There is no indication that this law has been changed after 2010. Canada: the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (latest revision enacted in June 2019), section 144 exempts licended ritual slaughterers from the obligation of section 141 to first stun food animals before cutting their throats in order 'to comply with Judaic or Islamic law'. Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. Part: Commodity-specific Requirements. Division 7: Meat Products and Food Animals. Subdivision C: Humane Treatment. Justice Laws Website. Government of Canada (21 June 2019). Retrieved on 1 October 2019. United States: the Humane Slaughter Act 1958 exempts 'the Islamic and Jewish faith or any other religious faith' from the requirement to stun animals before slaughter, provided other conditions are met. Data on the legality of unstunned slaughter in Latin America, Africa and Asia is limited (however, it is likely that if any of these countries restricted it, it would have been reported by researchers and journalists by now).Main sources: Legal Restrictions on Religious Slaughter in Europe. Law Library of Congress (14 May 2018). Retrieved on 3 October 2019. (Map covering Europe and some Asian countries (inaccurate regarding Slovakia and Åland)) Silvio Ferrari, Rossella Bottoni (2006–2010). Legislation on religious slaughter. Factsheet. DIALREL. Retrieved on 3 October 2019. (covers most of Europe, Australia, Turkey, and Uruguay; partially outdated)
Author: Nederlandse Leeuw
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