Poland’s top court outlaws ritual animal slaughter

PanARMENIAN.Net - Poland's top court has outlawed the religious slaughter of animals weeks before the EU is due to allow the practice on religious grounds, BBC News said.

The Constitutional Tribunal said it was against Polish law to allow animals to have their throats cut and bleed to death without first being stunned.

Poland has small Muslim and Jewish communities who use such methods.

However, it is unclear whether the ruling will be superseded by a new EU law allowing religious slaughter.

On 1 January, a new regulation takes effect in the EU allowing the practice and setting common standards.

Poland's Agriculture Minister Stanislaw Kalemba told Polish radio the EU law took precedence, and would remove any doubt about the legality of the practice.

His ministry has awarded licences to at least 17 slaughterhouses to carry out killing of animals according to Jewish or Muslim guidelines.

But campaigners against cruelty to animals believe the EU law allows for individual countries to set their own rules.

Before the Polish ruling, Sweden was the only state in the EU which banned the religious - sometimes called ritual - slaughter of animals.