Animal welfare minister Ben Weyts wants to extend the ban to slaughtering animals without stunning them to all slaughterhouse facilities, which conflicts with Muslim and Jewish traditions

The Flemish parliament’s animal welfare committee will meet this week to discuss the issue surrounding the slaughter of animals without stunning them, a practice required by Jewish and Muslim tradition

The animal welfare committee of the Flemish parliament will hold a special recess session on Wednesday to discuss ritual slaughter in Flanders, with questions for animal welfare minister Ben Weyts.

The minister (pictured) has stated that he wants to extend the ban on the slaughter of animals without stunning – as practised in both halal and kosher rituals – to all slaughterhouses and not just the temporary ones set up to cope with demand during the Muslim Eid el-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) as at present.

Ritual slaughter would then be limited to officially licensed slaughterhouses, which cannot handle the demand during Eid.

Eventually, Weyts would like to see a total ban on slaughter without stunning, a measure that brings the Jewish community into the equation, and which led to Weyts being compared to Hitler earlier this summer for trying to wipe out Jewish traditions. Coalition partner CD&V is against the extension of the ban.

Photo: Jasper Jacobs/BELGA