09 June 2015

Public want to know if animals have not been stunned

Vets are calling for labels to signify meat from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter after a survey showed that most people wanted to know its source.

The British Veterinary Association said that shoppers should be told if the meat they were buying had come from halal or kosher abattoirs, which cut animals’ throats without first stunning them.

Almost three quarters of those questioned in a European Commission survey of 13,500 people said that they were interested in receiving information.

The number of sheep and goats killed in Britain without being stunned rose to 2.4 million in 2013, up 60 per cent in two years, largely because of an increase in demand among Muslim consumers. [The Times (£)] Read more