Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland

2002 No. 304

WELFARE OF ANIMALS

Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Made

1st October 2002

Coming into operation

8th November 2002

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development being a Department designated(1) for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(2) in relation to the common agricultural policy of the European Community, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the said section 2(2) and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 and shall come into operation on 8th November 2002.

(2) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(3) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Amendment of the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

2.  Schedule 7, Part III, to the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(4), shall be amended as follows –

(a) for paragraph 7(2) there shall be substituted the following:

“(2) In this Part “gas mixture” means either –

(a) argon, nitrogen or other inert gases, or any mixture of these gases, in atmospheric air with a maximum of 2% oxygen by volume; or

(b) any mixture of argon, nitrogen, or other inert gases with atmospheric air and carbon dioxide provided that the carbon dioxide concentration does not exceed 30% by volume and the oxygen concentration does not exceed 2% by volume.”;

(b) in paragraph 8(c)(iii)(bb) (which provides for a warning signal if the concentration of carbon dioxide rises above or falls below certain levels) for the words “falls below 25% or rises above 30%” there shall be substituted the words “rises above 30%”; and

(c) in paragraph 10(b)(ii) (which provides that no bird shall enter the chamber if the displayed concentration of carbon dioxide is above or below a certain volume) for the words “below 25% by volume or above 30% by volume” there shall be substituted the words “above 30% by volume”.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on 1st October 2002.

L.S.

L. McKibben

Senior Officer of the

Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (“the 1996 Regulations”).

They substitute a new paragraph 7(2) in Part III of Schedule 7 to the 1996 Regulations, so as to permit a new gas mixture for killing birds at a slaughterhouse. They also make consequential amendments to paragraphs 8 and 10 of that Schedule.

No Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in relation to these Regulations.

(1)

S.I. 1972/1811

(2)

1972 c. 68

(3)

1954 c. 33 (N.I.)

(4)

S.R. 1996 No. 558 as amended by S.R. 2000 No. 76 and S.R. 2001 No. 66