August 17, 2007

Spanish abattoirs not up to par

Spanish abattoirs are not up to the mark on European guidelines, especially on the area of animal welfare, a European research showed.

The report, published by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), said many animals in Spain are not being transported or slaughtered according to European guidelines.

Although improvements have been made since 2003, a lot remains to be done, the FVO said. One concern the FVO highlighted was that the animals were seldom anaesthesised before slaughter. Transport conditions for poultry also need to be vastly improved.

As each district has rules of its own on animal slaughtering, it is hard to achieve uniformity. There are also major pig production districts such as Catalonia which do not punish abattoirs breaking animal welfare rules.