Post by c0gnate on Jan 10, 2008 16:33:52 GMT -5
FROM the bullrings of Spain, to the peasant farms of Transylvania. The European Commission is reported to have yielded to pressure from Romania to grant a waiver from strict rules on animal slaughter that threatened to stamp out the ancient traditions of rearing a pig for Christmas, before killing it with the help of neighbours in a backyard.
The vexed question of Christmas pig killing was examined by a Charlemagne column late last year. In brief, the problem is that European Union rules on home slaughter require larger animals, like pigs, to be stunned humanely before their throats are cut. But with some 1.5 million pigs killed in backyards across Romania each year in a short period before Christmas, that would require vast armies of vets or technicians to be trained and equipped with captive bolt pistols or other stunning devices (electric stunning is not a great idea in snowy farmyards, as you risk dropping everyone standing near the pig at the same time as you knock the animal out).
At the time of Charlemagne's research, the signs were that the European Commission was going to turn a blind eye to the tradition, but would not grant a waiver. EU officials were unmoved by appeals from Romanian officials that their tradition was a ritual, and so should enjoy the same exemption as halal or kosher slaughter. It is not a ritual, but a custom, the Eurocrats ruled.
Now, reports the BBC's Romania service, the government in Bucharest has found a better argument, and won an official reprieve, allowing the Christmas pig killing to carry on for at least a few more years.
Dacian Ciolos, the Romanian agriculture minister, told the BBC:
"The issue I raised was why the Spaniards' killing of bulls in an arena should not be considered an infringement of animal welfare rules, while our traditional way of sacrificing animals for Christmas and Easter should be."
Only one year inside the EU club, and Romania is learning admirably how to play the game: do not appeal to questions of abstract principle, no matter how logical they may be. When in trouble, just point to another country that is getting away with the same thing.
www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2008/01/christmas_pig_killing_traditio.cfm
The vexed question of Christmas pig killing was examined by a Charlemagne column late last year. In brief, the problem is that European Union rules on home slaughter require larger animals, like pigs, to be stunned humanely before their throats are cut. But with some 1.5 million pigs killed in backyards across Romania each year in a short period before Christmas, that would require vast armies of vets or technicians to be trained and equipped with captive bolt pistols or other stunning devices (electric stunning is not a great idea in snowy farmyards, as you risk dropping everyone standing near the pig at the same time as you knock the animal out).
At the time of Charlemagne's research, the signs were that the European Commission was going to turn a blind eye to the tradition, but would not grant a waiver. EU officials were unmoved by appeals from Romanian officials that their tradition was a ritual, and so should enjoy the same exemption as halal or kosher slaughter. It is not a ritual, but a custom, the Eurocrats ruled.
Now, reports the BBC's Romania service, the government in Bucharest has found a better argument, and won an official reprieve, allowing the Christmas pig killing to carry on for at least a few more years.
Dacian Ciolos, the Romanian agriculture minister, told the BBC:
"The issue I raised was why the Spaniards' killing of bulls in an arena should not be considered an infringement of animal welfare rules, while our traditional way of sacrificing animals for Christmas and Easter should be."
Only one year inside the EU club, and Romania is learning admirably how to play the game: do not appeal to questions of abstract principle, no matter how logical they may be. When in trouble, just point to another country that is getting away with the same thing.
www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2008/01/christmas_pig_killing_traditio.cfm