Who's Who UK - Businesses In Britain

Farmed animal welfare: Slaughter - DEFRA

It is an absolute offence to cause or permit an animal avoidable excitement, pain or suffering. There are also specific rules on handling, stunning, slaughter or killing of animals. In particular:

• anyone carrying out any of these tasks must have the knowledge and skill to do their job humanely and efficiently;
• slaughtermen must be competent and hold a Registered Licence;
• in every slaughterhouse a competent person must be given authority to take action to safeguard welfare; and
• only permitted methods may be used to stun or kill animals.

Anyone killing or slaughtering an animal or bird on a farm must hold a slaughter licence unless the animal:

• is being killed for the purposes of disease controis being killed by means of free bullet in the field (in such instances, the individual should hold the relevant firearms certificate);
  
• is suffering and is being killed for emergency reasons relating to the welfare of the animal and where the animal needs to be killed/slaughtered immediately;
  
• is being killed by its owner for his private consumption;
  
• is being killed by a qualified veterinary surgeon.