1. This Convention applies to the movement, accommodation, detention, stunning and slaughter of domestic animals belonging to the following species: solipeds, ruminants, pigs, rabbits and poultry.

2. For the purposes of this Convention:

Abattoir: Any establishment or installation under sanitary control, designed for the conduct of professional operations for the slaughter of animals in order to obtain foodstuffs intended for public consumption or for the killing of animals for any other reason;

Routing: The unloading or driving of an animal from the landing wharves, or from the stabulation facilities or from the slaughterhouse to the premises or locations of the slaughterhouse;

Accommodation: The possession of an animal to provide the necessary care prior to slaughter (watering, food, rest) at stabulation facilities, parks or areas covered by the abatement;

Immobilization: The application to an animal of any process conforming to the provisions of this Convention to limit its movements with a view to facilitating stunning or slaughtering;

Rounding: Every process shall comply with the provisions of this Convention which, when applied to an animal, shall lie in a state of inconsciousness where it is held until the intervention of death. At the time of stunning, any avoidable animal suffering must be excluded in any event;

Slaughter : The killing of an animal after immobilization, dizziness and bleeding, with the exceptions provided for in Chapter III of this Convention.

Each Contracting Party shall take the necessary measures to ensure the effective implementation of the provisions of this Convention.

2. Nothing in this Convention shall affect the ability of Contracting Parties to adopt stricter rules for the protection of animals.

3. Each Contracting Party shall ensure that the design, construction and layout of slaughterhouses and their operation shall ensure the appropriate conditions provided for in this Convention in order to avoid, to the full extent of May cause excitations, pain or suffering to animals.

4. Each Contracting Party shall ensure that animals slaughtered in and out of slaughterhouses are spared any avoidable pain or suffering.

1. Animals shall be unloaded as soon as possible. During transport expectations, they must be protected from extreme climatic influences and should be provided with appropriate ventilation.

2. Personnel engaged in the delivery and accommodation of animals shall have the necessary knowledge and capacity and shall comply with the requirements set out in this Convention.

1. Animals shall be unloaded and transported with minnows.

2. Appropriate equipment such as bridges, ramps or walkways should be used for unloading animals. This equipment shall be provided with a non-slippery floor and, if necessary, lateral protection. Bridges, ramps and walkways should be as low as possible.

3. Animals shall not be frightened or excited. In any case, it is necessary to ensure that the animals are not paid and cannot fall out of bridges, ramps or bridges. In particular, it is forbidden to lift animals through the head, legs or tail in a way that causes pain or suffering.

4. If necessary, animals must be taken individually; if they are moved by way of corridors, they must be designed so that the animals cannot injure themselves.

1. Animals must be moved using their gregarious nature. Devices intended to direct animals shall be used only for this purpose and only for short periods of time. In particular, it is prohibited to strike animals on particularly sensitive parts of the body or to push them into such parts. Electric discharge appliances can only be used for cattle and pigs, provided that the discharges do not last more than two seconds, that they are sufficiently spaced and that the animals have the necessary space To move; landfills should only be applied to the appropriate musculature.

2. It is forbidden to crush, to twist or to break the tail of the animals or to grasp them in the eyes. Unshredding beatings, including kicking, are prohibited.

3. Cages, baskets or cribs containing animals shall be handled with minnows; they shall be prohibited from launching or overthrowing them.

4. Animals delivered in cages, hampers or perforated or flexible bottom caissons shall be unloaded with special care to prevent injury to the ends of the animals. Where appropriate, the animals shall be individually unloaded.

1. Animals shall be transported to slaughter premises only if their slaughter can be carried out immediately.

2. If animals are not slaughtered immediately after arrival, they must be hosted.

1. Animals shall be kept safe from adverse weather or climatic influences. The slaughterhouses must have sufficient facilities for the stabulation or the cage of animals with protection from the weather.

2. The ground of the unloading, passage, parking or lodging of the animals shall not be slippery. It must be able to be cleaned and disinfected and permit the total flow of liquids.

3. Slaughterhouses shall have places covered with fastening devices with feeders and troughs.

4. If animals are obliged to spend the night at the slaughterhouse, they must be accommodated and, if necessary, attached, with the possibility of sleeping.

5. Animals naturally hostile to each other because of their species, sex, age or origin must be separated.

6. If the animals have been transported in cages, baskets or caissons, they shall be slaughtered as soon as possible; otherwise they shall be given watering and food, in accordance with the provisions of art. 8.

7. If animals have been subjected to high temperatures in wet weather, they should be refreshed.

8. When weather conditions require it (e.g. high humidity, low temperatures), animals must be put into stabulation. The barns must be ventilated. During the scam, the barns must be sufficiently lit.

1. Water shall be made available to the animals, unless they are taken to the slaughter premises as soon as possible.

2. Except for those who will be slaughtered within 12 hours of arrival, the animals shall be moderately hungry and fed at appropriate intervals.

3. If animals are not attached, they must have feeders allowing them to feed without disturbance.

1. The condition and condition of the animals shall be inspected at least every morning and every evening.

2. Sick, weakened or injured animals must be slaughtered immediately. If immediate slaughter is not possible, they must be separated in order to be slaughtered.

Each Contracting Party may authorize derogations from the provisions of the Chapter of this Convention in respect of reindeer.

Each Contracting Party may provide that the provisions of Chapter II of this Convention shall apply Mutatis mutandis The delivery and accommodation of animals outside slaughterhouses.

Animals shall be detained immediately prior to slaughter if necessary and, with exceptions provided for in Art. 17, stunned according to appropriate processes.

In the case of ritual slaughter, the immobilization of animals of the bovine species before slaughter with a mechanical process aimed at avoiding all pain, suffering and excitations as well as any injury or contusions to animals is Required.

It is prohibited to use restraints causing avoidable suffering, to bind the hind limbs of animals or to suspend them before dizziness and, in the case of ritual slaughter, before the end of the bleeding. However, the ban on the suspension of animals does not apply to the slaughter of poultry and rabbits provided that the suspension immediately precedes the stunning.

Slaughter operations other than those referred to in s. 2 of the art. 1 can only be started after the death of the animal.

1. The dizziness processes authorised by the contracting parties must plunge the animal into a state of inconsciousness where it is maintained until slaughter, without any avoidable suffering.

2. The use of puntilla, mass and merlin is prohibited.

3. For solipeds, ruminants and pigs, the only methods of stunning are:

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Mechanical means by using an instrument with percussion or perforation in the brain;

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Electronarcsis;

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Gas anaesthesia.

4. Each Contracting Party may authorise derogations from the provisions of s. 2 and 3 of this Article in the event of the slaughter of an animal by the operator for its own consumption at the place where the animal is located.

1. Each Contracting Party may authorise derogations from the provisions on prior stunning in the following cases:

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Slaughtering according to religious rites;

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Extreme emergency slaughter when stunning is not possible;

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Slaughtering of poultry and rabbits in accordance with approved procedures causing instantaneous death of animals;

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The killing of animals for health-related reasons, if specific reasons so require.

2. Any Contracting Party which will make use of the derogations provided for in s. 1 of this article shall, however, ensure that in such slaughtering or killing, any avoidable pain or suffering is saved to the animals.

1. Each Contracting Party shall ensure the suitability of persons professionally engaged in the detention, stunning and slaughter of animals.

2. Each Contracting Party shall ensure that the instruments, apparatus or installations necessary for the immobilization of animals and their stunning comply with the requirements of the Convention.

Each Contracting Party which permits the slaughtering according to religious rites must ensure the empowerment of the priests by religious organizations in so far as it does not itself issue the necessary authorisations.

1. This Convention shall be open for signature by the member States of the Council of Europe and of the European Economic Community. It will be ratified, accepted or approved. Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval shall be deposited with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

2. This Convention shall enter into force six months after the date of the deposit of the fourth instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval of a member State of the Council of Europe.

3. It shall enter into force in respect of any Signatory Party that ratifies, accepts or approves it after the date referred to in s. 2 of this Article, six months after the date of the deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval.

After the entry into force of this Convention, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe may invite, in the manner it deems appropriate, any State not member of the Council of Europe to accede to this Convention.

2. Accession shall be effected by the deposit, by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, of an instrument of accession which shall take effect six months after the date of its deposit.

(1) Any State may, at the time of signature or when depositing its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, designate the territory or territories to which this Convention shall apply.

2. Any State may, at the time of the deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, or at any other time thereafter, extend the application of this Convention by declaration addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, in any other territory designated in the declaration for which it is responsible for international relations or for which it is entitled to stipulate.

(3) Any declaration made under the preceding paragraph may be withdrawn, in respect of any territory designated in that declaration, by notification addressed to the Secretary General. The withdrawal shall take effect six months after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary General.

1. Any Contracting Party may, as far as it is concerned, denounce this Convention by sending a notification to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

The denunciation shall take effect six months after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary General .

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe shall notify the member States of the Council and any Contracting Party not of the Council:

A.

Any signature;

B.

The deposit of any instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession;

C.

Any date of entry into force of this Convention in accordance with its art. 20 and 21;

D.

Any statement received pursuant to the provisions of s. 2 of the art. 22;

E.

Any notification received pursuant to the provisions of s. 3 of Art. 22;

F.

Any notification received pursuant to the provisions of Art. 23 and the date on which the denunciation takes effect.

In witness whereof , the undersigned, duly authorized to that effect, have signed this Convention.

Done at Strasbourg, on 10 May 1979, in English and in French, both texts being equally authentic, in a single copy which shall be deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe shall transmit certified copies to each of the signatory and acceding Parties.

(Suivent signatures)