Brussels - Antwerp: Europe and the Arabs
A non-profit Islamic organization has appealed to the Constitutional Court against the Flemish Animal Welfare Act, and more specifically against the ban on slaughter without stunning and the ban on home slaughter. This is what Flemish Animal Welfare Minister Ben Weets from the Northern League party said on the Het Gesprek program on Flemish Parliament Television. "In the Flemish-speaking half of the country, the Flemish Animal Welfare Act, which was approved last year in the Flemish Parliament, combines existing and new rules on animal welfare. The law replaces the 40-year-old Animal Welfare Act. The law also reimposes the ban on slaughter without stunning and adds a ban on home slaughter. Animals such as sheep, goats and pigs may no longer be slaughtered at home. Based on these two rulings, the non-profit organization Islamic Adhaya in Antwerp (north of the country) has filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court for annulment. Animal Welfare Minister Ben Weets expressed his regret over these legal steps. In an interview with Flemish Parliament Television, the minister referred to previous legal proceedings against the ban on slaughter without stunning. This ban had survived those proceedings. Weets said: "The court ruled The European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights have ruled that there is no impediment to the exercise of religious freedom. Anything else would be strange too. This means that a religious person might treat animals differently from a non-religious person. And that a religious person might slaughter animals differently from a non-religious person.”