This is the demand of an online petition signed by more than 88,000 people doing the rounds on social media. It is far from the first.
This latest example is full of phrases such as: 鈥淭he people of Britain wish to remain a civilized society not a barbaric one. We denounce halal & kosher meat in our country.鈥�
The call for a ban is becoming a perennial one, but the continual focus on the religious element of slaughter is getting in the way. It simply heightens emotions and diverts attention from the key concern, which is animal welfare. It is the distinction between stunned and non-stunned slaughter, not religious vs non-religious, which should be front and centre.
Advertisement
Another agenda
As they stand, the calls for change are often enthusiastically shared online by far-right groups. In a post-Brexit climate in which many ethnic and religious minorities feel victimised, allowing people with a xenophobic, Islamophobic or anti-Semitic agenda to hijack this is making sensible debate difficult. It鈥檚 nigh on impossible when people feel as though their religion is being attacked.
Why is this an issue at all? Animals in the UK are legally required to be stunned immediately before slaughter to render them unconscious during the procedure, unless being slaughtered for religious reasons.
Animals stunned immediately before slaughter are unconscious when their throats are cut. This means they are not aware of the severing of the major blood vessels that allows rapid bleeding out and death. Animals not stunned are fully conscious and die when enough blood has been lost.
Not only is bleeding out while still conscious stressful, inducing panic, but the animal will inhale blood through the severed trachea, and animals undoubtedly experience pain. Conscious sheep retain consciousness for up to 20 seconds once their throats are cut, cattle for up to 2 minutes, and poultry even longer.
Slaughterhouse rules
Some followers of the Islamic faith believe that meat cannot be considered Halal if the animal is pre-stunned. However, there are many Muslims who believe pre-stunning is compatible with halal slaughter; as a result about 80 per cent of halal meat in the UK is stunned before slaughter. However, pre-stunning is not considered compatible with Jewish shechita slaughter 鈥� so all kosher meat is unstunned.
Slaughter without pre-stunning is increasing. According to figures published by the Food Standards Agency, in 2011 around 10 per cent of sheep and 4 per cent of poultry died like this in the UK, but by 2017 this had increased to 24 per cent of sheep and 19 per cent of poultry. Approximately 3.3 million sheep and goats were slaughtered without pre-stunning in 2017, and 180 million chickens. This is of great concern to many farmers, to veterinary and animal welfare organisations, to many religious people and to the public.
What is the answer? From a welfare point of view, a ban of non-stunned slaughter would be ideal, but failing that, a legal requirement to label meat as stunned or non-stunned would allow consumers to choose better welfare if they so wished.
George Eustice, the UK farming minister, recently indicated that after the country leaves the European Union. Do it along welfare lines. Market forces would then dictate whether there was demand for non-stunned meat, whether classified as religiously slaughtered or not.
Look out for tractors
Currently, the easiest way to tell which meat has been produced according to high-welfare standards is to look for products accredited with one of the various such as 鈥淩ed Tractor鈥� or 鈥淩SPCA Assured鈥�, because these require animals to be stunned before slaughter. But there are many other meat products on shop shelves.
Labelling products on religious grounds would not be that helpful. Consumers need to be able to distinguish between stunned and non-stunned halal meat. Many people are not aware that the hindquarters of animals from shechita slaughter are not considered to be kosher so are sold, unlabelled, in the general food chain.
Perhaps those petitioning for change could take a leaf out of the British Veterinary Association鈥檚 stance on this: 鈥淲e believe that all animals should be stunned before slaughter to render them insensible to pain. Scientific evidence supports the use of pre-stunning to improve animal welfare. Our concerns have nothing to do with the expression of religious beliefs but with the practice of killing by throat cutting without pre-stunning.鈥�
To make progress on these issues, put the focus on welfare rather than religion.
Read more: Look your dinner in the eye; Meat without slaughter: 鈥�6 months鈥� to bio-sausages; Living on the veg: Should we all go vegan?
