HC Deb 31 July 1997 vol 299 cc435-6W
Sir Richard Body

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will place in the Library a copy of the advice he received from the Farm Animal Welfare Council on the carbon dioxide gas stunning of pigs. [11827]

Mr. Morley

I have placed in the Library a copy of the letter from the Farm Animal Welfare Council dated 1 May 1997. This says that the council would like MAFF to encourage the industry to develop superior stunning and killing methods which move away from stressful handling and that these should make use of non-aversive gas mixtures. FAWC in its letter further recommended that the industry should concentrate on the use of argon to induce anoxia and that high concentrations of carbon dioxide in air should be phased out as systems using alternative gas mixtures became commercially available.

We have commissioned commercial trials using alternative gas mixtures and the next steps we take will depend on the results of these.

We also await formal proposals from the European Commission to add alternative gas mixtures to the permitted methods for stunning animals.