Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter

Subject: Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter

The Commission report ‘Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter’ indicated that many manufacturers of slaughter equipment ‘do not seem to collaborate with research institutes’.

As a consequence, they were unable to ascertain whether a range of countries, including Germany, Denmark, Italy and Poland, are complying with fish slaughter rules.

It should also be noted that it would be helpful both for industries and Member States trying to achieve compliance with humane slaughter requirements if independent evaluations of the effectiveness of equipment carried out by research institutes were available publically.

What steps is the Commission taking to ensure that Member States are checking that the equipment used has been appropriately tested and to aid them in that process?

Answer given by Mr Andriukaitis on behalf of the European Commission (7 December 2018)

The EU legislation on slaughter of animals (1) does not require equipment used for slaughter to be tested.

The Commission considers relevant to develop further stakeholder dialogues in order to favour specific initiatives and projects in the field of the protection of fish at the time of killing, that could be mutually beneficial both from an economic and animal welfare point of view (2).

⋅1∙ Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing (OJ L 303, 18.11.2009, p. 1.

⋅2∙ Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the possibility of introducing certain requirements regarding the protection of fish at

the time of killing (COM(2018) 87 final).