MPs vote down kosher and halal slaughter bill

photo - sxc.hu/public domain

‘Ritual slaughter’ as it is known in Poland was banned by the Constitutional Court last December after judges found that it was incompatible with animal rights legislation.

222 MPs voted against the reintroduction of slaughtering without the animal first being stunned with 178 voting for the motion.

Thirty eight members of the ruling Civic Platform voted against the government-sponsored bill after the party decided that the vote was an issue of conscience.

Agriculture Minister Stanislaw Kalemba had argued that millions of zloty was being lost in exports to Israel, Turkey and other countries due to the ban.

In its current form, however, Polish law is in conflict with the European Convention for the Protection of Animals for Slaughter, which requires the stunning of farm animals but also allows member states to allow exemptions for religious practices.

Last year, following a debate on Jewish shechita and Muslim dhabiha slaughter methods in the Netherlands, Poland’s president Bronislaw Komorowski defended the ancient practice.

Komorowski said that the Dutch bill which sort to ban slaughter without stunning, “targets the Muslim and Jewish community” and represents “a crisis of tolerance” in Europe. (pg)