The number of animals killed without being stunned has risen sharply under a government exemption for Muslims and Jews from humane slaughter rules.
Almost a quarter of lambs had their throats cut without first being made insensible to pain, according to Food Standards Agency figures for April to June this year.
This was an increase from 2013 when 15 per cent of lambs were killed without being stunned and 10 per cent in 2011. The change has been attributed to an increase in halal slaughter rather than the Jewish shechita method.
The figures also revealed that almost a fifth of chickens are slaughtered without being stunned or after a stun that is too weak to guarantee that they do not feel pain.
The numbers indicate that, on an annual basis, more than three million lambs are being killed without being stunned and almost 200 million chickens are either not stunned or are ineffectively stunned.
[TOP RATED COMMENT 110 votes] Out Government should ban non-stun slaughter. Simple as that. No religious exemptions. Also ban import of meat from non-stun slaughter. Religious people don't have to eat meat if they don't want to.
[2ND 106] It is quite ridiculous that religion is allowed to interfere in the law on humane slaughter - as the BVA says, the exemption from pre-slaughter stunning should be abolished.
However, it is utterly outrageous that meat from animals slaughtered in this barbaric fashion is not labelled. The exemption from pre-slaughter stunning is supposed to be there to allow people whose particular cult requires them to eat such meat. The volume of meat produced in this way in the UK is far greater than that required to feed these relatively few people, and there is no religious reason that prevents it from being labelled.
So why are religious authorities so keen to prevent labelling?
[3RD 84] Religious slaughter is a rather absurd concept. It has no place in a modern society.
[4TH 82] There should, of course, be no religious exemption from what we believe to be humane animal slaughter in this country.
[5TH 78] The animal liberationists seem to be strangely silent and inactive in response to this slaughter. Where are they? Scared perhaps? Shows them up for what they often are - violent people looking for a cause where their targets aren't able to retaliate in kind. But faced with an opponent which will respond in kind and more, they melt away. Or perhaps they join the PC throng supporting multiculturalism?
[6TH 77] Slaughter without stunning is barbarity. That people should unknowingly buy halal meat is an outrage. Let's follow Denmark and ban this horrible, primitive, sadistic practice. [The Times (£)] Read more
