More than one and a half million pigs are slaughtered on family farms in Croatia every year, often without the legally prescribed stunning, the animal rights organisation Animal Friends Croatia warned on Thursday and called for a ban on domestic slaughter as it is considered a brutal practise. Pročitaj više

According to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, more pigs are slaughtered on family farms than in slaughterhouses each year.

In 2023, more than one and a half million pigs were slaughtered outside slaughterhouses, while about one million pigs were slaughtered in slaughterhouses, according to a statement by the NGO Animal Friends.

“Home slaughter in village yards is a particular horror”

Animal rights activists warn of the brutality of such practises and call for a ban on home slaughter.

“It is an unpleasant fact that slaughter is the most brutal treatment of another living being, but home slaughter in village yards is a particular horror because it takes place without any control over whether stunning has been carried out and whether the pigs are treated in accordance with the law,” said Snjezana Klopotan-Kacavenda, project coordinator at Animal Friends.

She said that the claim that domestic slaughter is a tradition that must be preserved and on which the survival of the rural population depends is not valid in her opinion. “If we end the tradition of bloody yards, farmers will not starve, nor will people emigrate en masse from Croatia, nor will anyone go bankrupt.”

“The loud resistance and the screams of the pigs bear witness to their fear and suffering”

The regulation on the slaughter of animals allows slaughter outside slaughterhouses if the meat is intended for personal consumption, provided that the persons carrying out the slaughter are trained and the animals are stunned beforehand.

Stunning is done with a captive bolt stunner, but many ignore these rules, the campaigners emphasise, pointing out that pigs are intelligent, social animals with complex emotions and unique personalities.

“The pigs’ loud resistance and cries are evidence of their fear and suffering,” warned Klopotan-Kacavenda.

The NGO pointed out the health risks associated with the consumption of products from domestic slaughter such as sausages. The World Health Organisation classifies these as carcinogenic as they are linked to colorectal cancer.