Random Historical Moments

"Freedom of choice"

The HSA believes that religious laws were designed to improve hygiene in primitive conditions. Modern humane methods were not known and therefore not specifically required nor forbidden. However, there is emphasis in Jewish and Islamic teaching of the need for kindness and humane treatment of animals, and both faiths recognise that taking the life of an animal carries great responsibility. When humane mechanical stunning equipment was first developed in the 1920s, the Association campaigned strongly to have it adopted as the national standard. However in 1933 when the first law regarding slaughter came into force there were specific exemptions from stunning for Jewish and Muslim methods of slaughter. The Association campaigned again in support of two Private Members' Bills in 1956 and 1968, and Lord Somers' Bill in the House of Lords, which sought to remove these exemptions. These Bills were all defeated and the Slaughterhouses Act 1974 continued to allow religious slaughter without stunning. The HSA, at the request of the General Secretary of the Union of Muslim Organisations, UK and Eire carried out a practical demonstration of captive-bolt stunning in 1981 to show clearly that stunning did not kill but merely rendered animals unconscious. At the conclusion of the demonstration the Muslims all agreed that they had been convincingly shown that the animals were still alive after stunning, cutting and during bleeding out. They also remarked on the ease of handling a stunned animal. At about the same time the Society submitted its recommendations to the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) for its review on the welfare of livestock slaughtered by religious methods. The HSA strongly supported the main recommendations of the FAWC Report published in 1985. These included:

• Ministers should require both the Jewish and Muslim communities to review their methods of slaughter so as to develop alternatives which permit effective stunning;
• the law should be amended to ban the rotary casting pen and introduce the use of an upright pen which allows the animal to stand;
• that all carcases and cuts prepared from animals including poultry, slaughtered by religious methods and offered for sale, should be clearly labelled.

The upright pen replaced the rotary pen on 5th July 1992, but the other main recommendations were not accepted. Jewish and Muslim communities are still permitted to slaughter without stunning, and meat from animals slaughtered by religious methods is still sold on the retail market without being clearly labelled as such.

Edith Neville school in Somers Town was the second Camden primary after Argyle in King's Cross to introduce a halal-only canteen menu.

Although headteacher Sean O'Regan had to deal with parental concerns when the decision was taken in 2000 he says it was nothing like the protests at Kingsgate.

He said: "We had a big public meeting and invited the parents as well as representatives from the school dinner contractors and we cleared a few things up.

"There were some teething problems and parents did raise concerns. Some of it was caused by a lack of understanding and misconceptions about the slaughter of animals.

"It works just fine here now. When the meat is on the plate you cannot tell the difference.

posted by Brituncula @ 9:35 PM