Following the UK Independence Party�s (UKIP) policy announcement that they are supporting the campaign to ban non stun slaughter, Shimon Cohen the Campaign Director of Shechita UK, has released the following statement:

�Citing weak, agenda led science, UKIP has become the first major political party in the UK to call for a ban on religious slaughter. This latest move is opportunistic and a disappointing shift from UKIP�s previous position, when both Nigel Farage and Stuart Agnew publicly advocated their support for Shechita.

UKIP�s new assertion that �[mechanical] pre stunning before religious ritual slaughter is fully compatible with all world religions,� is plain nonsense. The Jewish community does not permit any of the industrialised mechanical stunning methods used in factory slaughter.

By joining the campaign to prioritise �animal welfare� over the rights and beliefs of the UK�s faith communities UKIP has returned to the fringes of mainstream politics.�

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)