The Brussels Correctional Court has dismissed a case filed by Gaia against the Federal Agency for Food Safety, Afsca, which the animal rights organization had accused of illegally granting licenses to temporary abattoirs practising slaughter without stunning, set up each year on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice. Gaia accused Afsca of treating temporary and permanent abattoirs in the same manner even though the former do not satisfy the conditions imposed on the latter. The difference is that the permanent abattoirs are prohibited from slaughtering animals without stunning them while that practice is allowed for the temporary abattoirs.
“We asked that the temporary abattoirs not be granted any more licenses,” Gaia president Michel Vandenbosch explained. However, the court determined, a few days ago, that it could not issue a preventive ruling against an eventual license.
Gaia is studying the possibility of appealing against the ruling. It has warned Afsca that as soon as a license is issued, it will again take court action.
The Festival of Sacrifice will take place on the first of September.
The Brussels Times
