Cattle ranching in the province of La Pampa, Argentina. [Photo 4440 / Shutterstock]
Lawmakers on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee supported the Commission’s proposal to give farmers more flexibility to slaughter animals on farms and thus the need for animal transport, but called for more help.
In a delegated regulation followed last December, the European Commission proposed to facilitate the slaughter of animals on farms, when there is a danger to the animal or to the transport operator.
Local slaughterhouses in Europe are shrinking in favour of giant commercial structures, lengthening animal shipping times, causing strain and even physical suffering.
For NGOs and a number of developing countries in the EU, the solution lies in slaughter on farms, in “mobile slaughterhouses” – trucks that move from farm to farm with the right equipment.
“We are giving more flexibility to slaughter on farms,” Koen Van Dyck of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Health told MEPs in the Agriculture Committee.
The condition, he recalled, is to comply with hygiene standards to ensure food safety, since meat is sold on the European market and can even be exported, without differentiating itself from products from commercial slaughterhouses.
For example, it will be necessary to have a veterinarian on the farm before slaughter.
MEPs overwhelmingly supported the proposal, but Martin Häusling (Germany, Greens/EFA) said “there is still a lot of bureaucracy”, complaining about the requirement to have a vet on site.
“There are millions of hunters in Europe and when a deer is killed there is no veterinarian present,” the German organic farmer added, while Romanian MEP Daniel Buda (EPP) claimed that “there are not enough veterinarians to send them anywhere. “Animals are slaughtered. “
The Commission has rejected these criticisms because it considers that “pre-death inspection” by a veterinarian is a “necessary” procedure to ensure that the meat is like any other meat on the market.
“In Romania there are not many slaughterhouses on the territory, so the Commission must now demand that member states implement this legislation,” Buda added, calling for monetary aid to farms for the purchase of processing and processing equipment.
This request was one of those put forward by the European Parliament in a 2021 report through the Committee of Inquiry into the coverage of animal transport.
Gilles Lebreton (France, ID) noted that the first French cellular slaughterhouse to become operational in 2021 – Bœuf Ethique – went bankrupt after only two years of operation due to a drop in orders due to the COVID lockdown, emerging prices and backlogging. of overdue payments.
“Is the Commission aware of this failure in France?”asked the MEP, acknowledging that the formula works in countries such as Sweden.
The Scandinavian country, which is very sensitive to animal welfare issues, is today a benchmark in this area. It has invested heavily in recent years to produce animal products on a small scale.
According to the European Court of Auditors, farmers’ cellular slaughterhouses also “face demanding situations in terms of logistics and profitability”. Operating costs require “creating added value” and increasing costs for consumers.
Regional differences in tariffs and the asymmetrical application of EU animal transport rules across Member States inspire the shipment of live animals, creating loopholes and dangers for sufficiently good animal welfare standards, according to a new review by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
Irène Tolleret (France, Renew) said that transparent labelling of slaughter would allow farmers to “improve their meat and build visitor loyalty”.
EU regulations have banned slaughter on farms since 2004. However, since 2021, farmers are allowed to bleed and stun animals on the farm if there is a danger to the animal or the operator’s transport.
On 14 December 2023, the Commission adopted a delegated act extending on-farm slaughter to sheep and goats (whereas previous slaughter was limited to horses, farm animals and pigs) where there was a transport threat. Each farmer can now kill up to 3 oxen, six pigs or nine sheep or goats depending on the year.
According to data from the European Commission, more than a third of animal journeys in the EU last between 8 and 24 hours. In the case of horses, cows, sheep and goats, this accounts for more than 40% of trips.
The European Commission has made proposals for stricter regulations on the shipment of animals and pets, but campaigners have criticised a number of shortcomings, while much of the first planned review of animal welfare has been left for the next legislature.
[Editing by Angelo Di Mambro and Zoran Radosavljevic]