The Polish government has drafted regulations aimed at reducing animals’ suffering but it still wants to allow kosher and halal slaughter. The practices of Jewish shechita and Muslim dhabiha livestock slaughter were banned in December 2012 by Poland's Constitutional Court following a campaign led by animal rights groups. In a statement on Tuesday, Prime Minster Donald Tusk said the new regulations, which still have to be adopted by the Sejm, the Polish parliament, would not reinstate rotating cages in which the animals are placed before their throat is cut.
The Agriculture Ministry in Warsaw said it would work to enshrine religious slaughter in Polish legislation designed to streamline the way that Polish procedures correspond with European Union rules that went into effect in January. The European Union said individual countries would have discretion on whether to allow or ban shechita.
The Jewish community in Poland and some legal experts argue that kosher slaughter remains protected by another law, the 1997 Act on the Relation of the State to the Jewish Communities in Poland, which states that kosher slaughter may be performed in accordance with the needs of the local Jewish community.
In his statement, Tusk is also quoted as saying that the reason for allowing ritual slaughter was linked to economic motivations, among other things. Poland’s halal and kosher slaughter business is estimated to be worth US$ 250 million annually, mainly owing to exports.
Tusk added the restrictions would make slaughter in Polish butcheries stricter on animal welfare than other EU member states. "The new regulations on the matter will eliminate the most shocking methods of animal slaughter," he said.
