religious slaughtered food

[auntsallyann]

After all the recent hype in the media regarding halal slaughtered food being foisted upon non-muslims, and doing losts of research myself I really do not want to eat this stuff. But how can I avoid it when nothing is labelled as such. I know I would of unwittingly have eaten it in the past, as most weekends we would have an 'indian' takeaway. Now I have discovered they are not Indian owned but Pakistani/Bangledeshi so they only serve halal meat. I will never again go into one of these restaurants/takeaways. Surley there should be a law for clear labelling of this foodstuff. Many schools are also serving this to non muslim pupils, though having checked with my sons school they do not serve it.
Surley it is against our human rights to have this foisted upon us with no warning, so we can at least have a choice as to whether we wish to eat it or not.
I have e-mailed several 'indians', pubs and brewers fayre places etc and have been told they do serve it, mainly chicken and new zealand lamb, although they only use animals which have been pre-stunned. Pre-stunning is not acceptable to me as this only renders the animal unconcious for around 20seconds so it is still alive whilst it's throat is slit and left to bleed to death.
I know organisations such as the RSPCA and DEFRA do not agree with halal slaughter, but the govt will not ban it.
How could I find out about my human rights on this, I do not want to have this served to me unknowingly and feel strong enough about it that if I find out I am being served it without my knowledge I will sue.
Apart from go veggie, is there an other option to ensure we are not eating it.

[society]

Auntsally, perhaps you should slaughter your own animal for use.

[society]

Nothing is wrong with halal meat. In simple terms halal means saying a prayers and blessing the meat before sacrificing the animal's life. I think it's the more decent to do than pumping a bullet or whacking the animal with a piece of 'whatever' to kill it. Those of you who eat wild game / meat, how do you think the animal was killed before it reached the shop? Who is to say the animal didn’t suffer and had a ‘long’ death? ( Btw,I'm vegetarian, never ate meat)

[hc4361]

Wild game is shot and it is quick and lawful. There is no comparison to shooting game in the open air and cutting an animals jugular in an abattoir.

[jake-the-peg]

I find it difficult to get wound up about this from the cruelty perspective.

I don't think very much non-halal/non-koshr meat is particularly humane either.

However I really can't think of a good reason not to insist that Halal or Kosher meat labeled as such.

I think you'll have a bit of a long wait with Tories in power though - they resist anythink that they see as hampering business.

There was an infamous fight between the vegetarian Tory minister Alan Clark and Margaret Thatcher - he wanted trapped fur products labelled as such.

He lost

[jake-the-peg]

Wild game is shot -it's quick?

Really? - I think there's enough ham fisted pheasant shoots out there

[DrFilth]

you have to go to the right butchers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pZrn3sC3bU

[maclarencat]

Killing an animal is cruel no matter how you do it. If the thought of them being killed in this way (and personally I dont think it makes a difference if you look at the conveyer belt system of slaughter houses) turns your stomach stop eating meat.

[gotchaeme]

i agree 100% we should not have to turn vegatarian just because our meat is taken over by a horrible ritual ! i want my meat killed humanly and thats that !

[jake-the-peg]

Actually it seems to me that this is in fact a labeling issue.

People are not being given the right to choose because of inadequate food labeling.

You'd probably be much better taking this up with your MEP as this is much more a European standards issue than a matter for just National Government.

The great joy of the MEP system is that you have a number of MEPs for your region and they represent different parties and viewpoints so if one of them doesn't seem interested in your issue you can always talk to one from a different party.

Find your MEPs here:

http://www.europarl.o...n/your-meps/your-meps

[fredpuli47]

The conventional way of slaughtering chickens for the mass market always was to hook them up to a conveyor and slit the neck of each as it passed. That was for everybody, long before we had many Moslems here. That may be why so much chicken can be declared halal. The producers were always doing something similar.

The 'stunning' of chickens isn't by someone going to each one and hitting it between the eyes with a tiny hammer. Chickens are gassed and then the throat cut to kill them. Sometimes they are gassed to kill them. [This last information from an article in an American 'national' today, where new methods were discussed. One producer said labelling a bird 'gassed' was not much of a selling point. Consumers don't like to dwell on the bird being alive and killed for them, however it was despatched. ]

[McMouse]

Morrisons sell halal carrots.

[jake-the-peg]

That's true

However I don't see the problem with insisting that Halal meat is labeled Halal and Kosher meat labeled Kosher

You don't need to get graphic about it - anybody who is bothered can avoid it anybody who isn't can make their choice.

But if there's no labeling ther is no choice.

However I thought that Halal and Kosher buthery had to be overseen by a religious authority.

I am slightly suspicious that this story is a piece of misleading anti-muslim propaganda and is trying to claim that any animal butchered by having it's throat cut is hala and it's being done as a sop to Islam.

But I haven't the time right now to really dig through the details to find out

[hc4361]

It is not anti-muslim propaganda. I emailed the New Zealand meat board who confirmed that 90% of all lamb exported to the UK is Halal.

[churchill123]

Ive heard people complaining about animals suffering as a result of halal food, the same peopl who turn a blind eye when a fish is caught and is wriggling for breath for 20 minutes before dying. How hypocritical! if you want to have meat the way you like it, rear the animal yourself and kill it yourself and that way you wont have any reason to complain. Animal suffering for 20 seconds? lol.....i dont think so.....

[hc4361]

Home slaughter is illegal in the UK.
http://www.timesonlin...nk/article3386866.ece

[KARL]

In my opinion, boxtops contribution is the best for its balance. I once found myself outside an abbatoir where there was a large pen full of lambs (yes, waiting for the slaughter). The smell of blood is very distinctive and hung in the air - the lambs were the usually fabled calm flock. These things together actually made me a bit nauseous but it has never occurred to me to become vegetarian. I have no doubt at all that modern slaughtering is, on the whole, far more humane now than it ever has been but I have no compulsion to go against whatever campaign others wish to mount. Not long ago I took part in a quango discussion of labelling in the context of the (geographic) origin of food and that is curiously convoluted. Personally, I rather think I would take the approach of not really caring whether my food was ritually killed or not, otherwise I would, to be in good conscience, also before consuming it have to check for the latest inspection report on the abbatoir it came from - always assuming that is possible.