Regulation 14 Conditions to be observed in connection with the stunning and slaughter of animals

The occupier of a slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard shall ensure that—

(a)

a mechanically operated instrument for stunning animals is kept, in good working order, in the slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard (in addition to any other instrument or equipment used for stunning or slaughtering animals there) and is available for immediate use in an emergency;

(b)

any electrical equipment used for stunning an animal in the slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard—

(i)

is set to deliver a current which is sufficient to render the animal instantaneously insensible to pain, and

(ii)

contains a device which will prevent it from delivering a current below that which it has been set to deliver;

(c)

cattle are not placed in a stunning or restraining pen in the slaughterhouse or in a stunning pen in the knacker’s yard unless—

(i)

in the case of an animal which is to be stunned prior to slaughter, the person who is to carry out the stunning is ready to do so immediately the animal is placed in the pen, or

(ii)

in the case of an animal which is to be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse by a religious method, the person who is to carry out the slaughter is ready to make the incision immediately the animal is placed in the pen;

(d)

an animal is not shackled or hoisted in the slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard until is has been effectively stunned or, in the case of an animal which is to be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse by a religious method, until the appropriate period referred to in regulation 25(2) has elapsed and only if it is unconscious; and

(e)

where an animal to which regulation 23 does not apply is to be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse by a religious method on a cradle or table, only one animal is placed on such cradle or table at any one time.