Welfare of crustaceans at slaughter

Subject: Welfare of crustaceans at slaughter

Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing aims to ensure that humane standards are applied at slaughter, however, this legislation still shows undeniable gaps.

Its provisions cover fish, but do not extend to crustaceans. National governments can adopt additional legislation to provide further clarification and species-specific regulations.

However, this is not a sufficient guarantee that such rules are adopted and that animal welfare is appropriately protected in all Member States.

For example, it is still legal and common to kill lobsters by boiling them alive (a practice that causes unimaginable distress and pain to the animals, who can remain conscious for up to two or three minutes), while using electric shocks may be similarly problematic when killing prawns.

The Commission was to publish a new proposal on EU Animal Welfare legislation in 2023, after its own inception impact assessment concluded that some requirements of the regulation on welfare at the time of killing ‘are not species-specific enough, e.g. as regards farmed fish’. But even this assessment did not consider the need to introduce species-specific provisions for crustaceans at the time of slaughter.

Does the Commission intend to address the issue of cruel slaughter methods for crustaceans and, if so, when could such a proposal see the light of day?

Submitted:24.4.2024

Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission (10 June 2024)

The existing EU animal welfare legislation on the protection of animals at the time of killing (1) is not applicable to invertebrate animal species.

In the revision of the animal welfare legislation announced under the Farm to Fork Strategy (2), the Commission is working to assess the economic, social and environmental impacts of the envisaged options, and will consider the available scientific opinions and results of the ongoing impact assessment.

In December 2023, the Commission adopted proposals on the protection of animals during transpor t (3) and on the welfare of dogs and cats and their traceability (4).

The work to revise EU rules on the welfare at farm level, at the time of killing and to establish new EU rules on animal welfare labelling is ongoing (5).

There are still knowledge gaps on the welfare issues related to decapods. To remedy this situation, the Commission has agreed with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on an indicative (2023-2030) roadmap for EFSA to provide scientific opinions, including on certain invertebrates such as decapods.

The designation, beginning of 2024, of the EU Reference Centre for the welfare of aquatic animals (6), which activities cover the entire production chain from farming, transport to slaughter/killing, is also an important step to promote scientific and technical expertise on welfare of aquatic animals.

1 ∙ ⸱ Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 of 24 September 2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing (Text with EEA relevance) OJ L 303,

18.11.2009, p. 1-30. 2 ∙ ⸱

https://food.ec.europa.eu/animals/animal-welfare/evaluations-and-impact-assessment/revision-animal-welfare-legislation_en#:~:text=The%20Farm%20to %20Fork%20Strategy%20adopted%20by%20the,ultimately%20ensure%20a%20higher%20level%20of%20animal%20welfare. 3 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2023:770:FIN 4 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2023:769:FIN 5 ∙ ⸱ https://food.ec.europa.eu/animals/animal-welfare/evaluations-and-impact-assessment/revision-animal-welfare-legislation_en 6 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2024/266/oj












| | )In addition, the Commission carries out other activities to promote animal welfare of aquatic animals, including the EU Platform for Animal Welfare (7).

7 ∙ ⸱ https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/awp/ | | ( | | )