Lisbon, June 22, 2025 (Lusa Verifica) - Portugal did not slaughter 250 million animals using the Muslim Halal method in 2023, as claimed by far-right Chega MPs Pedro dos Santos Frazão and Cristina Rodrigues.
In that year, the actual number was 7.06 million, according to data from the Directorate-General for Veterinary Services (DGAV).
+++ Allegations: “250 million animals slaughtered using Islamic methods in 2023” and “12 million between 2017 and 2021” +++
In April, during the debate for the legislative elections between Chega and PAN, Chega’s vice-president, Pedro Frazão, reiterated a complaint made by him and other members of his party, according to which “in 2023 alone, according to official figures, Portuguese slaughterhouses using the Muslim halal method handled 250 million animals” and challenged the newspaper Polígrafo to refute these claims (https://archive.ph/ResCg).
After posting on social network X, Pedro Frazão, who is also a veterinarian, added his complaint in the same vein. He published it at the end of January on several social networks, explaining in text and video that “in recent years, Portugal has witnessed a significant increase in halal slaughter, a method that requires greater attention to animal welfare and the values of our society” (https://archive.ph/3MV0p).
On 30 January, in a tweet accompanied by a video with statements by himself and MP Cristina Rodrigues, Pedro Frazão wrote that Portugal will have gone “from 12 million animals slaughtered by the Islamic method in five years (2017-2021) to an unbelievable 250 million in 2023 alone”, a figure he considers “a brutal attack on our principles”.
In the video, which viewers have watched tens of thousands of times and which Chega MP Cristina Rodrigues (https://archive.ph/BSyQf) also shared, he insisted on the same claim that “between 2017 and 2021, a total of 12 million animals were slaughtered for religious reasons” and “currently, in 2023 alone, slaughter for human consumption using this religious method has involved 250 million animals”.
+++ Facts: In 2023, the halal method has accounted for 7.06 million animals, 3% or less than claimed by MPs +++
Public statistics currently group animals slaughtered according to halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) religious rites, and the information available on the Directorate-General for Veterinary Services (DGAV) website shows that 255 million animals were slaughtered or prepared for human consumption in the country in 2023 (https://archive.ph/EWOfT).
To verify the claim made by Chega MPs, Lusa requested detailed information from this public body and received detailed statistics since 2020.
This data and the responses show that ‘religious slaughter accounts for only a very small fraction of national production, clearly well below the 250 million publicly reported,’ explains the director general of the DGAV.
According to Susana Guedes Pombo, “in 2023, slaughterers killed 7,059,669 animals according to the halal religious rite [99.84% poultry], a figure equivalent to 2.86% of all animals slaughtered” in the poultry, cattle, goat and sheep categories, in which halal slaughter takes place.
This percentage drops to 2.77 per cent of the total number of animals slaughtered in 2023 if all categories are considered, including rabbits, pigs, wild game and animals slaughtered for health or emergency reasons, situations or species that receive alternative preparation, which together total 255,219.650 animals slaughtered that year.
The MEPs also claim that “between 2017 and 2021, religious practices accounted for the slaughter of 12 million animals”, and they note that the period between 2020 and 2021 alone saw 11,928,454 animals slaughtered in this way.
However, this type of Halal slaughter indeed increased by almost 130%, rising from 4,097.Slaughterers killed 4,097,267 animals in 2020 and 9,410,000 in 2024, an increase from 1.79% to 3.70% in the weight of Halal slaughter in the poultry, cattle, goat and sheep categories.
+++ Summary of DGAV data for the period 2020/2024 +++
(only species with halal slaughter)
Year Animals slaughtered Halal slaughter % Halal slaughter % halal slaughter with stunning==============================================================================================2020 229,384,276 4,097,267 1.79 100%2021 228,671,289 7,831,187 3.42 99.97 per cent2022 238,711,818 8,290,713 3.47 99.66 per cent2023 247,160,337 7,059,669 2.86 99.99 per cent2024 254,217,924 9,410,000 3.70 99.52 per cent
Official DGAV data also show that slaughter according to halal religious rites accounts for only 3.06% (36.6 million) of the more than 1.198 billion animals slaughtered between 2020 and 2024, figures relating only to categories where halal slaughter takes place, so the percentage of the total is smaller.
Slaughter according to kosher rites covered 51,556 animals in 2024, just 0.02% of the total in the first year Jewish practitioners carried out this practice in Portugal.
+++ Allegation: “Animals are slaughtered in cold blood” +++
In his tweet of 30 January, Pedro Frazão stated that “Portugal must swiftly end these barbaric practices and fully uphold animal welfare laws” and, in the video accompanying the post, MP Cristina Rodrigues reinforces the idea that the “exponential increase in Islamic immigration also has an impact on animals, for whom mistreatment has also increased”.
In the video, Pedro Frazão describes that “this religious Halal method is completely different from the more humane slaughter method we practice in Europe because while our slaughter method causes the animal to be desensitised before we kill it, in the Halal method the animals are slaughtered in cold blood”, a practice he also calls “grotesque”.
+++ Facts: Religious slaughter respects animal welfare rules +++
According to Islamic doctrine, “halal” is the term applied to food that is “lawful” or “permitted” by Allah and excludes “blood, pork and anything sacrificed in the name of any god other than God,” explains the Halal Institute of Portugal (IHP). Food that complies with these principles is considered “halal”, i.e. permitted except in life-threatening situations (https://archive.ph/e1jgv).
Among other specific requirements, halal slaughter demands that butchers bleed the animals at the moment of slaughter by manually cutting the trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries and jugular veins in a single movement.
In Portugal, “DGAV grants special authorisation for slaughter according to religious rites, as this practice constitutes a derogation provided for in Article 4(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 of 24 September on the protection of animals at the time of killing and slaughter.”
This legal framework allows slaughter with or without stunning, but “operators must fully comply with the applicable legislation, and the authorities grant authorisation only after a full assessment of the procedure, infrastructure and equipment available,” as explained in Technical Clarification No.10/DGAV/2024, which imposes animal welfare requirements (https://archive.ph/GX5Cw).
However, according to information that the DGAV provided, halal slaughter includes desensitisation of animals. In fact, in the last five years, between 100% (2020) and 99.52% (2024) of halal slaughter used some form of stunning. In 2023, for example, 99.9 per cent of animals slaughtered according to this religious rite were stunned beforehand.
In addition to European and national legislation on this matter, since 2018, Portugal has had a standard from the Portuguese Quality Institute (IPQ) that allows certifying authorities to certify this type of product, namely through the Halal Institute of Portugal (https://www.ipq.pt/loja/normas/norma/80622309-2ad5-ec11-a7b5-0022489db0cd/, upon registration and payment).
NP 4559:2018 sets out all the requirements for the production, storage and dispatch of fresh halal meat, including the conditions for slaughter with and without prior stunning.
In the case of slaughter with stunning, the stunning must keep the animal alive, which is why operators refer to it as simple or reversible stunning. The aim is to ensure “an adequate state of unconsciousness that maintains the animal’s life until bleeding”.
This standard provides for electrical stunning of the head (rabbits, cattle, sheep and goats) or of the body (poultry) and for the use of a captive bolt pistol (cattle, sheep and goats), as Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 provides. Hands typically use a non-perforating captive bolt pistol only occasionally; the method suits ruminants weighing less than 10 kilograms.
According to the CEO of the IHP, a private non-profit institution that certifies this type of slaughter, “we can categorically state that Portuguese and European legislation, particularly concerning animal welfare, is fully integrated into Halal standards” adopted by the IHP, so “the claim that animals subjected to Halal slaughter in Portugal receive different treatment from that applied in conventional slaughter is incorrect.”
+++ Contradictory +++
On Thursday, Lusa Verifica emailed MPs Pedro Frazão and Cristina Rodrigues to ask about the origin of the “official data” they shared on social media, explaining that it differed from the official figures provided by the DGAV, and the MPs provided their response after this fact check went to publication.
+++ Lusa Verifica’s conclusion: false +++
Lusa Verifica’s fact check concludes that the claim of an increase from 12 million animals slaughtered using the halal method in Portugal between 2017 and 2021 to 250 million in 2023 alone is false, and that authorities carry out this process with appropriate desensitisation.
The figure attributed to 2023 is approximately 35 times higher than the actual 7.06 million animals slaughtered. Operators carried out more than 99.9% of these halal slaughters with prior stunning, a percentage that has consistently remained above 99.5% over the last five years.
LYGA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
