Butchering an animal without stunning (ritual slaughter)

IS IT PERMISSIBLE TO SLAUGHTER AN ANIMAL WITHOUT STUNNING IT FIRST?

Summarized: An animal may only be slaughtered without prior stunning in exceptional cases. An application for derogation (exemption from the rule) can be based on religious slaughter requirements, but in practice the authorities are very strict in assessing such applications. As a result, Muslims are very rarely granted exemptions to slaughter without prior stunning. 

According to Section 4a of the Animal Protection Act (TierSchG), a warm-blooded animal may in principle only be slaughtered if it has been stunned beforehand.¹ The exception in Section 4a (2) 2 of the Animal Protection Act stipulates that an exceptional permit for slaughter without stunning may be granted for the needs of members of a religious community if mandatory regulations of the religious community prescribe such a type of slaughter.²

The term ‘religious community’ in Section 4a (2) 2 of the Animal Welfare Act has been complied with if the applicant belongs to a group of people who share a common religious conviction.³ The applicant must substantiate and comprehensibly demonstrate that according to the common religious conviction of the members of a community, the consumption of meat necessarily requires slaughter without stunning.⁴ The fact that there are also regulations in Islam that allow slaughter without stunning is not sufficient to negate the mandatory character of the religious provision.⁵ Animal welfare can be adequately taken into account through ancillary provisions and monitoring their compliance of said provisions, along with the verification of the applicant's expertise and personal suitability.⁶ 

In practice, applications for an exemption from slaughter are regularly rejected on formal grounds because the requirements of the Federal Administrative Court are not met.⁷

In February 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled that meat from animals slaughtered without stunning does not meet the requirements for an EU organic label. Since then, it is no longer possible for a Muslim butcher to label meat obtained through slaughter without stunning with an organic label.⁸   

In another ruling on slaughter in December 2020, the European Court of Justice ruled in favor of the Belgian legislator that, contrary to Art. 4 (4) of the EU Slaughter Regulation,⁹ it can completely prohibit slaughter without stunning and that the possibility of slaughter by means of short-time electric stunning sufficiently takes into account the interests of the Muslim and Jewish population.¹⁰ In Germany, this decision does not result in any changes for Muslims and Jews, as the Federal Constitutional Court has so far given religious freedom more weight than the European Court of Justice.  

^{1 Federal Administrative Court, 15.02.2002 - BvR 1783/99.} 

^{2  Previous case, margin 59.}

^{3 Previous case, margin 55.} 

^{4 Previous case, margin 57.}

^{5 See above.}

^{6 See above.} 

^{7 Ludwig in ZLR 2020, 564 (569).}

^{8 European Court of Justice, 26.02.2019 C-497/17.} 

^{9 Regulation EG Nr. 1099/2009.} 

^{10 European Court of Justice, 17.12.2020 C-336/19.}