Andrzej Elzanowski

Polish Academy of Sciences

and

Polish Ethics Society

Current animal welfare issues in the farming sector

Slaughter, transport and animal markets

The 290th session: Animal welfare issues in Poland ,17 January 2013

Slaughter

The general (probably not only Polish) problem: piece-work.

Not only the butchers but also the Veterinary Inspection (and ultimately the appointed veterinarians) are paid a piece rate.

Nobody is interested in real checks that could slow down the production line.

In fact, nobody is interested in the presence of a veterinarian during slaughter!

Ritual slaughter w/o stunningThere can be no doubt that the procedure of slaugther ing w/o prior stunning is much more inhumane than anystandard procedure(s):

Dialrel Report 2010EFSA 2004 Welfare Aspects of Animal Stunning and Killing Methods

(Question No EFSA-Q-2003-093):FAWC 2003, Part 1: Red Meat Animals); FAWC 2009 (Part 2: White Meat

AnimalsBritish Veterinary Association, 2012, Welfare at slaughter and food labelling.

(Briefing for MEPs)Federation of Veterinarians of Europe 2002. Slaughter od animals without

prior stunning. (FVE position paper).A. Kijstra & B. Lambooij 2008 Ritueel slachten en het welzijn van dieren.

Besides, even the religious rationale for ritual slaughter turns out to be based on superstition: several laboratories confirmed that stunning does not affect blood loss (Anil 2002).

Ritual slaughter in Poland: rotary pens, no alleviating measures

Ritual slaughter started illegally before 2004 and expanded rapidly, out of the public eye but with a full cooperation of veterinary authorities who did nothing to make more humane.

Over 300 000 cattle per year are killed that way

Officially there are 16 halal and 2 schechita slaughterhouses.

What happens to unkosher meatfrom schechita?

The fate of the hind quarters that are rejected by religious Jews remains unclear. At least some of them probably end up on regular market (althgough one representative of the industry maintained that they are exported as halal meat).

The industry is secretive but some details from the Leszno-Gostyn complex have been published*: 100 cows are killed daily in Leszno, then transported to Gostyń. The carcasses are processed (skinned, vessels removed) and the rabbies inspect and test the cracass. As a result on the average only 20 carcasses pass the kosher test and 80 are sold to general public.

* In an interview with Paweł Bramson, a prominent Jewish activist, who works at Gostyn as a supervisor (mashgiach).

Transport of unweaned calves: the ordeal continues

Well over 100 000 unweaned calves per year have been exported from Poland to Italy (average journey time 25 hours), The Netherlands, and Spain.

After many years, Polish veterinary authortities declare being unable to secure minimum welfare standards of long distance transport of calves to comply with Regulation (EC) 1/2005, in particular to provide appropriate feeding.

In addition the FVO noted (in the last 2011 Report) the lack of recording by satellite navigation systems (SNS) as required for journeys over 8 hours, and no appropriate instructions provided by Polish vet authortities

Animal markets

Repeatedly recorded violations:

beating, using electric prods, twisting tails, pulling ears, dropping from a truck;

sticking piglets, birds (often many of them) and calves in sacks that are thrown into trunks/boots;

bringing in sick animals who cannot even stand;keeping dehydrated animals without any access to water:keeping form many hours unmilked cows, with milk dropping from the

udder;no shelters against extreme weather (above +30 Cº or -20 Cº);no loading platforms;vehicles not adapted for transporting animals.

Probably some 100 000 animals (mammals and birds) pass annually

through 55 markets (as located by Viva, legal and illegal), where animals are regularly traded.

Kozłów Biskupi 13/11/ 2012

Animal markets:appalling negligence of Veterinary Inspection

Despite years of reporting appalling cruelties by NGOs (by Viva and others) there is no improvement (as shown by the FVO 2011 audit):

downers are dragged to the vehicles

animals routinely tied by the horns

all without any reaction of the local veterinary authority.

Bodzentyn 3/11/2012

Many markets are not controled even formally: The Veterinary Inspection ignores Animal Welfare Act and refuses to inspect markets that have not been registered (following an absurd interpretation of law)

The overarching, fundamental problem:obstruction of animal welfare improvements

by the Department of Agriculture and its top veterinary officers

The attitude of Poland´s Dept of Agriculture: „humanitarianism is for the humanists” (M. Sawicki in response to cruelty at animal markets)

Systematic erosion of EU laws (mistranslations, removal of axiological message)

Degradation of national law under the pretext of transposing EU law: the minimum EU requirements are routinely presented as the required standards.