Following the Strasbourg Court’s dismissal of Kosher and Halal groups’ challenge to the ban on no-stun slaughter of food animals, Rosalind English talks to animal welfare campaigner Paula Sparks about the complex web of laws surrounding our treatment of farm animals in the abattoir. The welfare rules in the UK post Brexit require a level of “protection of animals at the time of killing” (known as PATOK), but there are many difficult areas where this protection is difficult and expensive to apply, such as the depopulation of intensively reared birds due to highly pathogenic avian flu, or the disposal of male chicks in hatcheries where only laying hens are commercially viable.

The cases and legislation referred to in the episode are as follows:

Belgian Muslims and others v Belgium (Application no.s 166760/22 and 10 others) And read our post discussing this judgment on the UKHRB here
Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing

Paula Sparks is a trustee at the UK Centre for Animal Law and a former barrister at Doughty Street Chambers.

The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations2015 (S.I. 2015/1782) (“WATOK”)

The Animal Welfare Act 2006

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