The Brussels-based animal rights group GAIA (Global Action in the Interest of Animals) set up four “crime scenes” across the Belgian capital on Thursday to demand an end to slaughtering animals without stunning.
The locations included the Brussels parliament, the Socialist Party (PS) headquarters, the Stock Exchange, and the Central Station. Several hundred posters were also posted around the city to support the cause.
Both Wallonia and Flanders banned this practice five years ago but it remains legal in Brussels, where nearly 30,000 animals are slaughtered without stunning each year, suffering for up to 12 minutes, activists said.
“Stop slaughter without stunning. Every day without a ban is a crime,” read messages displayed next to sheep outlines on the ground. Individuals in white suits, posing as “experts,” inspected the scenes to highlight the hidden violence of the practice and the urgency of its prohibition.
An Ipsos survey commissioned by the group in September found that some 76% of Brussels residents either support or do not oppose the ban.
As discussions for forming a new Brussels government continue, GAIA urges policymakers to prioritise banning slaughter without stunning. They remind that many political parties, including MR, Les Engagés, DéFI, Ecolo-Groen, N-VA, Open Vld, and Vooruit, committed to this ban before the elections.
“The winning parties must now take responsibility and swiftly pass the ban on slaughter without stunning,” emphasised GAIA's operations director, Sébastien de Jonge. “It’s time to end political manoeuvring and eliminate one of the cruellest practices of our time.”
