Wales Green Party

The Wales Green Party has dropped a previously held policy which said the Greens would “seek to end non-stun slaughter of farmed animals in Wales”. The decision was taken by party members at their autumn conference in Cardiff.

According to documents produced for the conference, the move to change the policy was initiated as it was “open to interpretation as discriminatory towards minority communities and is also problematic on equality and inclusion issues.”

Many kosher and halal slaughter practices don’t involve the stunning of animals, and therefore any move to ban non-stun slaughter would ban a substantial proportion of kosher and halal meat.

The new text of the Wales Green Party’s policy on animal slaughter reads: “Wales Green Party would work empathically and respectfully with relevant medical, scientific and religious groups to bring about reduction in fear, pain and discomfort for all animals that are bred and maintained for food. We would seek to ensure that when slaughter takes place it is done so as to cause least suffering to the animal, with regard to species and individual animal factors, and is monitored without prejudice towards minority religious and cultural groups.”

The new policy was adopted with 96 per cent of members voting in favour of it.

Proposing the motion, Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter told the conference: “I think the revised text […] covers the issues sensitively and humanely while not neglecting the aspect of animal kindness. And I would urge us to adopt this because communities know that this has been brought to our attention and are waiting for me to report back the result of this vote to amend this policy. So I strongly recommend conference supports this.”

In his speech, Slaughter also said that it was important for Wales Green Party to shift the policy at a time of rising Islamophobia and antisemitism in Britain.

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