Should our schools serve Halal food?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.express.co...rve-strict-Halal-food

How can they say this school isn't a Muslim school even though 95% of pupils are Muslim?

/// In 2003, an independent advisory group – the Farm Animal Welfare Council – concluded the way Halal meat is produced causes severe ­suffering to animals. FAWC argued that cattle took up to two minutes to bleed to death under Halal practice.///

Should the other 5% of pupils to this school be forced to eat this food?

[R1Geezer]

All these religious practices that make torturing animals ok should be outlawed, end of.

[Nosha123]

I think we should force them all to switch to vegetarian.. its damn cruel.. and inhumane and for them to quote that the animal does not feel pain.. lets try slitting their throat and asking them if it hurts!!!

[R1Geezer]

so no, to answer the question. Animals for meat should be slaughtered humanely. I'm frankly amazed it's legal today as it is. What are the RSPCA doing?

[Nosha123]

maybe we should canvas the RSPCA to outlaw this cruel practice...

[R1Geezer]

when did I ever support vivisection? I abhor cruelty to animals, you must have mis understood me newsdesk.

[Seadragon]

As a non-faith school, then no the school should not be serving halal.

[bentaxle]

We started with a poleaxe then went to a humane gun as this was found to be less cruel ,now we are throat cutting ,Like RIG was saying ,is the RSPCA frightened to offend someone .I spent some of my youth in a slaughter house and they are rotten places ,all who eat meat should be made to visit one once in their life ,damn religous cranks seem to have the say on all things

[tastymorsel]

my husband used to love meat until he worked for a while at the local slaughter house and witnessed the cruelty that went on there.I won't shock you with the details but it is so inhumane.I think most people who go "veggie" do so because they don't like how animals are made to suffer for the benefit of our dinner tables.I love a leg of lamb but if I had to go into a field and choose a sheep to get one from them I think a cheese sandwich would be in order.I know animals are bred for our use but could there not be a more humane way of killing them instead of herding them into slaughter houses to be terrorised by the smell of death and being cruelly treated by staff who have become de-sensitised.And NO that school should not be serving halal meat !!!!! This is Engalnd

[TCL-MUMPING]

The fact that 95% are Muslim does not make it a Muslim school in the same way that having 95% pupils who are Church of England does not make the school C of E. If many of the local population are Muslims, the chances are that many of the wee ones are too.

I wonder also, is it animal welfare that concerns you or is it the dreaded "M-word"?

[dh001]

oh dear

[boxtops]

You might be surprised how much meat on sale in shops available to all of us is already halal, and tastes no different, the average customer does not know (and I guess many don't care) how their meat is slaughtered. I made an enquiry a while back at my local butchers and all the chicken breasts they buy at th wholesale market are halal, it says it on the box and the butcher hadn't even noticed. If the animals are properly stunned (and the abbatoirs should be inspected as should all slaughterhouses) then the animals are not conscious when they are killed. If the experience of the average slaughterhouse is as bad as some people say it is, I couldn't say that halal methods are any more or less cruel than other methods.

[sp1814]

AOG

You need not necessarily worry about the 5% of kids who aren't Muslim. In the UK now, halal meat suppliers are increasingly turning to a form of slaughter which is both humane, and meets halal requirements.

As long as the animal is stunned (electric bolt) so that they cannot be revived, the throat can then be slit complying with the strictures of halal.

So, as long as the well-being of the animals in question is not compromised, is there any reason why the kids can't eat halal meat? Does it taste any different?

I suppose the school may have taken this practical approach because to supply the 5% of kids with non-halal meat would mean using two different suppliers, which would reduce the cost benefits of buying in bulk from one supplier.

[Quinlad]

sp, you're overlooking the fact that that's still different to how we've traditionally done it.

And, like all change, it is therefore wrong.