UK: APPG on religious meat slaughter deemed ‘anti-Muslim’

ARTICLE ONE OF TWO ARTICLES

By Oli Haenlein – MeatInfo

30631_1The debate, headed up by Neil Parish MP, chairman of the APPG for beef and lamb, will look at the nine recommendations made in the recent APPG report ‘Meat Slaughtered in Accordance with Religious Rites’. The report called for greater research on labelling and the effects of stunning.

Naved Syed, halal advisor to the Yorkshire Asian Business Association (YABA), told meatinfo.co.uk that YABA’s 10-point list of animal welfare concerns that was sent to Neil Parish has still not been responded to. He believes these concerns are of more significance than those in non-stun/stun argument.

He said: “This group is not concerned about animal welfare, but is anti-semitic and anti-Muslim. Why are they hell-bent on starting at the back end of the animal’s life and not at the beginning of the animal’s life? About 15-18 million male live chicks are put in grinders each week in this country.

“We at the Yorkshire Asian Business Association will not be attending this meeting or any other meeting headed by Neil Parish MP until he and his group have answered our 10-point animal welfare concerns.”

The Halal Authority Board (HAB) made similar complaints. Shaykh Tauqir Ishaq, head of certification at HAB, said: “It appears that government wishes to single out and outlaw religious un-stunned slaughter under the guise of ‘animal welfare’. The evidence as to which method is the ‘least painful’ is quite subjective and not sufficiently definitive to create policy with. There are still numerous practices approved by government, such as maceration, ear-tagging, castration and dehorning, which cause unnecessary pain and cruelty to animals, yet these go on un-stunned and un-discussed.

Syed also expressed concerns over the finances involved. He said: “The question that needs to be asked is who is paying for the research? These nine recommendations that the APPG report has highlighted – the research alone will cost the tax payer over £15 million.

“The last research that was carried out for halal was by the Food Standards Agency, which issued guidance for Local Authority enforcement officers on halal food issues in February 2003, at a cost of over £5 million of tax payer’s money, and it had taken five years in writing, which has never been used.”
– See more at: APPG on religious meat slaughter deemed ‘anti-Muslim’ – MeatInfo

ARTICLE TWO

Parliament debates kosher and halal slaughtering methods
MPs want extra labelling of kosher and halal meat
MPs want extra labelling of kosher and halal meat

More animals slaughtered for food in Britain should undergo stunning before they are killed, an MP investigating kosher and halal practices has urged.

Neil Parish said the government must continue its research into shechita and other religious meat production procedures during a debate in Parliament.

The Westminster Hall session followed the publication in August of a report conducted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Beef and Lamb. It studied the slaughter of meat in accordance with religious rites.

Group chairman Mr Parish said he would also be seeking discussions with religious authorities over the possibility of introducing post-cut stunning to the shechita process.

Any request for such stunning is likely to be met with strong opposition from kosher authorities.

The Conservative MP said there was a “deficit in understanding shechita” and urged the government to continue its research into the method.

Mr Parish said he wanted labels to focus on whether meat had been stunned or not, rather than to point out whether the product was kosher or halal.

“There is a danger that an outright ban on religious slaughter would not improve animal welfare,” he said.

“We conducted the inquiry in a calm and cool way. I hope our points will be taken on board. It is a serious piece of work.

“We have to find a way forward so that more animals are stunned before slaughter.”

MPs also discussed the possibility of introducing compulsory CCTV cameras to all slaughterhouses to ensure better observation of killing procedures.

A number of Jewish MPs, and those representing constituencies with a large number of Jewish residents, spoke in defence of shechita.

They included Conservatives Jonathan Djanogly, Lee Scott, Matthew Offord and Mike Freer, and Labour’s Louise Ellman and Shabana Mahmood.

Ms Ellman said a ban on kosher meat production would be a “gross infringement” of the Jewish community’s civil rights.

Meanwhile Shechita UK, which works to defend the practice, has accused the British Veterinary Association of misleading consumers over the issue of labelling.

The BVA said nine out of 10 vets believed that labelling which explained the method of slaughter would help shoppers make an informed choice about meat purchases.

But Shechita UK director Shimon Cohen said: “The BVA position on labelling assumes that consumers understand exactly what industrialised mechanical stunning involves.

“It is on that basis that they continue to promote a rudimentary and incomplete approach to labelling.

“Consumers have every right to know if an animal was asphyxiated by gas, electrocuted, shot with a steel bolt gun or indeed mis-stunned, leaving the animal in terrible distress.”