Schools are feeding children halal meat but not telling parents that it comes from animals that had their throats cut while they were still conscious.
At least 140 schools, including some that are Christian, serve halal meat from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter.
Most halal meat comes from pre-stunned animals but some Muslim community leaders forbid stunning and demand that unstunned meat be served in schools.
Schools with a lot of Muslim children often acquiesce to those demands and may offer unstunned meat to all pupils regardless of their faith. EU law requires animals to be stunned to avoid unnecessary suffering but there is a derogation for Muslims and Jews.
Seventeen councils supply schools with unstunned halal meat, according to freedom of information requests from the National Secular Society.
Kirklees council in West Yorkshire supplies unstunned halal meat to 42 schools, Luton council to 21 and Bolton and Leicester to 17 each.
The schools tend to be accredited by the Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC), which does not permit the animals to be stunned. [The Times (£)] Read more
