Colin Blackstock
Thursday May 15, 2003
The Guardian
Jewish and Muslim communities could lose the legal right to
slaughter animals without first stunning them under new proposals
from a government committee due to be published next month.
The government funded Farm Animals Welfare Council has been
researching slaughter methods and animal welfare. In its report it
is expected to conclude that the Muslim and Jewish methods of
slaughter are inhumane.
The proposals are likely to anger religious leaders from both
communities and if made law end hundreds of years of religious
rites.
European animal welfare regulations stipulate that all farm animals
must be stunned prior to slaughter, unless they are to be killed by
religious methods, such as halal for Muslims and shechita for Jews.
This involves a religiously trained slaughterman cutting
the throat of a cow, sheep or chicken and letting it bleed to
death.
The FAWC says this is inhumane and should be abolished. However the
proposals, discussed between the council and religious groups have
proved contentious.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,956385,00.html
