Members of the Korea Association for Animal Protection (KAAP) stage a performance at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, April 11, to protest halal slaughter in Korea. Courtesy of KAAP

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-ryung / Yonhap

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is facing criticism for not regulating two halal slaughterhouses that violated Korea's animal protection law by slaughtering cows without first rendering them unconscious, according to ministry officials and animal rights activists, Friday.

The activists are calling on the ministry to take immediate action to suspend the operation of the halal slaughterhouses.

The ministry admitted to The Korea Times that it hadn't monitored the practices carried out by the halal slaughterhouses in Gangwon Province. The slaughterhouses, both located in Gangwon Province, were certified halal by the Korea Muslim Federation Halal Committee (KMF) earlier this year.

Handawoon FSL in Hongcheon County which produces 13 cuts of beef — from tenderloin to shank, ribs and brisket — acquired the certification in February. Hoengseong KC in Hoengseong County, which produces 11 cuts of beef, was certified halal in March. Both licenses will expire in a year.

Halal slaughter, a ritualistic practice based on Islamic beliefs, requires the use of a sharp knife to cut the throats of live and healthy animals, severing the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe and draining blood completely.

The method goes against Korea's Animal Protection Act, which defines methods of slaughtering animals. It states that the suffering of animals must be minimized by first making them unconscious by methods specified by the ministry, including gas or electrical stunning. Slaughter should happen "only where the animals are unconscious."

The KMF, upon the slaughterhouses' requests for halal certification, invited officials from Malaysia's Department of Veterinary Services to inspect the slaughterhouses and their butchery methods in person. Passing the inspection, the slaughterhouses acquired a certification by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia, also known as JAKIM.

"The Malaysian authority acknowledged the slaughterhouses' halal slaughter methods," a KMF official told The Korea Times.

Handawoon started exporting halal beef products to Malaysia earlier this month.

Workers at a meat factory in Korea work on fresh beef. gettyimagesbank

Ministry officials said that they haven't inspected the butchery practices at the two slaughterhouses.

The agro-livestock sanitary and quality team at the ministry's marketing and consumer policy bureau said that while they are responsible for slaughterhouses nationwide, their tasks are limited to checking if the butchers handle livestock cleanly in accordance with the country's Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act. They added they have never ventured to visit either of the two slaughterhouses.

"We don't have any legal clauses regarding halal slaughter," an official from the team said. "The right to issue or revoke slaughterhouse licenses belongs to local governments, not the central government. So it's not really our job to visit a slaughterhouse for inspection. Besides, the animal protection law was made much later than the Livestock Product Sanitary Control Act. We've been adhering to the sanitary control act since the 1960s."

An official at the ministry's animal welfare policy division also mentioned the act and highlighted the legal obligation of making animals unconscious before slaughtering them.

"Any violation of the law is being monitored by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety," the official said.

The issue of the illegal slaughter practice emerged in April when the Korea Association for Animal Protection (KAAP) staged a protest against the practice at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul.

The activists said that halal slaughter is against the Animal Protection Act.

"A video released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on April 11 showed Australian cows being shipped to Indonesia, slaughtered in the halal method and suffering in pain after their throats were cut," KAAP President Lee Won-bok said.