The European Commission has put forward plans to ensure that animals facing Shechita are “spared any avoidable pain, distress or suffering, the Sunday Express (UK) reports.
Under the proposals all animals facing Shechita would have to be electrically stunned beforehand.
The move could threaten production of both halal and kosher meat, rules for which often forbid pre-stunning.
The EU plans contain an opt-out for countries wanting to continue to allow so-called religious slaughter, but animal welfare groups are pressing the Government not to adopt it.
Any move to change the exemption for religious slaughter would prompt an outcry from both the Muslim and Jewish communities.
The RSPCA has asked Environment Secretary Hilary Benn to take the opportunity to ban the practice.
A spokeswoman said: “The RSPCA recognizes that religious practices should be respected, but we consider that scientific research has clearly demonstrated that slaughter of an animal without stunning can cause unnecessary suffering. This is not about religion, it’s about animal welfare.”
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a consultation last month on the best way to implement the EU rules in Britain.
A spokeswoman for the department said: “Ministers are currently minded to allow the exemption to continue, but it is important to have a consultation to hear other views.”
Halal meat is a big business in the UK. Last year the Government approved a deal which could allow 5,000 halal butchers from Pakistan to travel to this country to take up work.
Religious interpretations vary, but generally Muslim and Jewish codes insist that animals are killed by a single cut to the throat without stunning.
In a seminar entitled “Why we shun the stun”, Shuja Shafi, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s food standards committee, said religious demands meant animals had to be “alive, healthy and conscious at the time of slaughter”.
He insisted that halal slaughter was often less cruel because animals were not stressed in the run-up. He said the stunning process often went wrong.
A scientific study by the Government’s Farm Animal Welfare Council in 2003 found that animals could remain fully conscious for up to two minutes after having their throats cut.
It said all animals should be stunned before slaughter.
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10 Responses
This is how the anti Semitism starts. It’s like the blood libel.
1,
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This is not how it ‘starts.’ This is how it CONTINUES!
You notice how they tried to farenfer halal? Even they are smart enough to not want to ‘offend’ the farshtinkina muslims yemach sh’mom.
This is routine. It has been going on for years. While it might have a chance if it only affected Muslims, being both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim offends almost everyone. The various “animal rights” groups are very noisy, but have never been very effective. ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, their “noise” has not historically correlated with serious anti-semitism (for example, the rise of Naziism in Germany was not preceeded by an anti-schichta movement, the countries that banned schichta were not the same as the countries that were happy to collaborate with the Nazis during the holocaust).
The animal might be conscience for up to 2 minutes but it doesn’t feel any pain.
I think electrucuting an animal is barbaric. They know what suffering a person goes through when they are electucuted. It has been documented by humans whose throat has been slight that before they die they tell they do not feel pain.
The Farm Animal “Welfare” Council (FAWC) is well known to Jewish community activists in Britain and has been trying to convince the government to ban shechita for many years. Their “scientific” studies totally ignore the overwhelming evidence that shechita is actually much more humane and painless than stunning. They are driven more by antisemitism than any real concern for animal welfare, and are trying to reach a compromise method which muslims will agree to but will still not be acceptable to Jews. Let us daven that their plans are foiled!
They wont be afraid of the Jewish community, but they WILL be afraid of the MOSLEMS! They wont do it!
#8 – actually its an issue that many of them don’t want to tick off the Muslims, and many of them (but a largely different group) don’t want to tick off the Jews, which is why this sort of issue is a non-starter.
Hey #5: “It has been documented by humans whose throat has been slight that before they die they tell they do not feel pain”.
Which human had his throat slit and then came back from “yennem velt” to tell u he didnt feel pain? Just Curious
The gemara says that one with the mida of a murderer should be a shoichit.