EU High Court: Animal welfare as a value to which contemporary democratic societies have attached increasing importance for a number of years, in the light of changes in society.
MOLLY QUELL: The European Court of Justice found that Belgium’s animal slaughter law does not violate the rights of Jews and Muslims, who argued the regulation infringes on their religious beliefs… Ruling against an unlikely alliance of Jewish and Muslim leaders, the EU’s highest court held Thursday that member states can require that animals be stunned before being killed…
EU regulations require that animals be “rendered insensible to pain before slaughter,” but member states can make exceptions for religious rituals. In a law that went into effect in 2019, Belgium mandated that all animals be stunned before slaughter, virtually banning Jewish and Islamic ritual slaughter, which requires that animals be in perfect health before they are killed.
“Animal welfare, as a value to which contemporary democratic societies have attached increasing importance for a number of years, may, in the light of changes in society, be taken into account to a greater extent in the context of ritual slaughter and thus help to justify the proportionality of legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings,” the ruling states…
There was disagreement at the July hearing as to whether stunning even violates religious practice. One rabbi told the court that the Belgian rule is compatible with Jewish law, an argument the court was sympathetic to. “Preparatory documents show that electronarcosis is a non-lethal, reversible method of stunning, with the result that if the animal’s throat is cut immediately after stunning, its death will be solely due to bleeding,” the ruling states. SOURCE…
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