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Government to push through ritual animal slaughter amendment

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 13.12.2012 11:57
Polish coalition MPs have prepared legislation that will ensure that ritual animal slaughter continues in Poland, but are awaiting a decision from the prime minister.

Parliament
Parliament on Thursday: photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Poland's Constitutional Court, a supervisory judicial body that resolves disputes in the country's laws, ruled on 28 November that ritual slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat will be illegal as of 31 December.

The court concluded that a 2004 amendment that introduced exceptions to an animal protection law that forbade the slaughter of animals without prior stunning was “unconstitutional.”

However, coalition MPs now want to repeal the original article pertaining to prior stunning.

“This is the quickest way to change the law, as a [new] bill by the government would require protracted public consultation,” Minister of Agriculture Stanislaw Kalemba, of junior coalition partner the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL), told news channel TVP.

However, he says that the draft amendment will not be submitted until studies on the matter have been reviewed, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared.

“We look forward to the government's decision,” an MP from senior coalition party Civic Platform told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“Banning ritual animal slaughter would be a blow to religious minorities,” said the MP, who is maintaining his anonymity.

“They will be forced to import food at inflated prices, or leave Poland,” he added, confirming that a large block of coalition MPs is willing to vote in favour of the legislation.

MP for junior coalition partner the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL) Krzysztof Kosinski has revealed that a study highlighting the economic advantages of maintaining the practice “will be an additional argument in the discussions with political partners in parliament.

Minister of Agriculture Stanislaw Kalemba argued that Poland earns between 1.2 and 1.5 million zloty from the business, which takes in 30 companies and several thousand employees.

He noted that Poland may be compelled to pay compensation to companies if the practice is banned.

Earlier this week, ninety Polish scientists signed a letter to Prime Minister Donald Tusk arguing that ritual animal slaughter is “inhumane.

Nevertheless, a new EU directive will come into effect on 1 January, condoning the practice.

If Poland wants to be exempt from the directive in the immediate future, it must submit an application to Brussels by 31 December.

In this regard, it is unlikely that ritual animal slaughter will grind to a halt in Poland this month. (nh)


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