I choose not to eat meat (in part because I'm concerned about animal welfare issues).
Same here, my original motivation for going veggie was the welfare of the animal that ends up on someone's plate.
Every so often this religious discrimination / animal welfare thing blows up, so I thought I'd look a few things up. First,
Compassion in World Farming's view on halal and religious slaughter.
Compassion in World Farming believes that all slaughter should be humane, which means that animals must be stunned prior to slaughter using a method that causes immediate unconsciousness or, in the case of gas stunning, does not cause distress during the period before loss of consciousness.
We understand that in the UK, over 90% of animals slaughtered for Halal meat are stunned before slaughter; however, animals slaughtered for Kosher meat are in general not stunned before slaughter.
Sounds like a reasonable position to me.
So what are the actual requirements of the slaughter process to make the result halal or kosher?
I found
this on RSPCA Australia's site.
A standard for meat production in Australia is that all animals must be effectively stunned prior to slaughter. A form of halal slaughter complies with the standard and is commonly used in export abattoirs. The only difference between this halal-slaughter method is that it uses a reversible (electrical) stunning method, while conventional humane slaughter uses an irreversible (physical) stunning method.
So it seems possible for an animal to be stunned before slaughter,
and the resulting product to still be halal.
Looking for information about kosher slaugher,
RSPCA Australia turned up again.
Kosher meat must be slaughtered in a particular way, so the rabbi in a kosher meat plant is a specially trained religious slaughterer. The animal must be killed so it feels little pain. A sharp knife is used to cut the oesophagus, the trachea, carotid arteries and jugular veins in one action. Excessive pressure on the blade is forbidden. The animal is raised so blood flows out and this is then covered with dirt. Failure to do any of these acts correctly means the animal is unfit to eat.
A standard for meat production in Australia is that all animals must be effectively stunned prior to slaughter. However, there are instances where the relevant state or territory meat-inspection authority can approve an abattoir for ritual slaughter for the domestic market. Requirements for this type of slaughter – including kosher slaughter – are set out in a nationally adopted guideline Ritual Slaughter for Ovine (Sheep) and Bovine (Cattle). In kosher slaughter, pre-slaughter stunning is not permitted.
So we've got a bit of a problem making animal welfare compatible with the kosher rules.
But, from a food labelling point of view, I think we've established that "this food is compliant with your religious beliefs" is not necessarily the same as, nor is it mutually exclusive of, "this animal was slaughtered whilst fully conscious".
OK, taking a few steps back and viewing the bigger picture...
I think people are right to be concerned about the way in which animals are slaughtered for food, especially if it involves unnecessary suffering. But I think that pales into insignificance compared to the conditions that some of these animals are held in for their entire lives right up to that point.
How about proper, comprehensive food labelling?
"This chicken was bred to grow at many times its natural rate, had the tip of its beak cut off with a hot knife, spent its entire life in a giant overcrowded shed with no access to sunlight and a floor covered in poo, and was stunned before slaughter. £1.50 or 3 for £4"
