We must take issue with the assertion in the Animal Welfare Strategy for England that there are ‘commercially feasible alternatives’ to Co2 stunning. As the original Animal Welfare Committee report acknowledges, there is currently no commercially tested inert gas alternative to Co2 that has been trialled, licensed and is ready to implement. Additionally, the animal welfare issues (which the AWC report highlights) associated with the other suggested alternatives would prove worse than the current system, putting more stress, not less, onto animals. 

Whilst the AWC’s recommended 5-year transition period to phase out Co2 sounds like a long time, the structural changes to plants that would be needed will be difficult to achieve in that timeframe and would likely not yield the desired animal welfare improvements.

This would also mark the UK out as a single outlier in the world – no other country has gone down this route. 

Given the UK imports 50% of its pig meat – and it would be illegal to ban imports from countries using Co2 – moving away from Co2 would slow down operations to such an extent that it would render processors completely un-competitive. It would decimate the domestic pigmeat industry and be a severe blow to UK food security.

While we can see that the AWC has looked at this with the best of intentions, there are serious flaws to some of their recommendations which could have unintended consequences and could even reverse some of the improvements in animal welfare achieved in Britain over the years. When Defra announces a consultation, we will be submitting our members’ on-the-ground insights.