Warsaw - The lower house of Poland's parliament on Friday rejected a government plan that would again permit ritual slaughter in the Central European country.
The government wanted to overturn a ban on Muslim and Jewish ritual slaughter of livestock, performed by cutting animals' throats without stunning and allowing them to bleed to death.
But the government's plan failed to find a majority, with more than 40 members of the ruling liberal-conservative Civic Platform party voting against it.
Poland's constitutional court declared this form of killing unconstitutional in November, under pressure from animal-rights groups, who call the practice cruel and barbaric.
Numerous online videos documenting halal and kosher slaughter show conscious animals writhing in terror for minutes, often as other animals look on.
Poland's meat industry fears export losses of up to 1.5 billion zloty (more than 450 million dollars). The number of consumers of halal and kosher meat in Poland is very small, but the country exports to Turkey, Arab countries and Israel. - Sapa-dpa