* Proposal by RSPCA singles out religious communities for food labelling
* Insisting on labelling only un-stunned meat is discriminatory
22nd November 2013
The Muslim Council of Britain today spoke out against a campaign by the RSPCA to have all meat slaughtered via the non-stunned method to be punitively labelled. Muslims must consume food that is in accordance with the religious requirements of Halal, just as Jews must consume food that is Kosher. The religious laws of both religions require that meat be obtained from animals that were not stunned.
Dr Shuja Shafi, Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: “We fully support the labelling of Halal food, and consumers should know how the meat was slaughtered. But it is discriminatory to only label un-stunned meat for consumers to make a choice on animal welfare grounds. Consumers also have a right to know if their meat was slaughtered by one of many different stunning methods prior to slaughter, i.e., by one of the legal methods of slaughter that includes mechanical stunning with a captive bolt, gassing, electrocuting, or any of the other approved methods.”
“There are different methods of stunning and each has its own welfare implications. If the purpose of the labelling is to truly help consumers make informed choice, all meat should be labelled with how the animal was killed – not just un-stunned.”
“This is a first step in trying to ban un-stunned slaughter. The next step will be to ban ‘reversible stunning’, on animal welfare grounds and insist on using only ‘stun-to-kill’ methods.” Both of these steps are based on a scientific presumption that stunning in fact provides better animal welfare. We strongly believe that when examined critically, the scientific literature does not support that assumption”.
“We hope the RSPCA reconsiders its proposals lest it scapegoats religious communities.”
The Muslim Council of Britain fully supports the stance taken by Shechita UK in opposing the RSPCA’s proposals.
[ends]
Notes to Editors:
The Muslim Council of Britain is the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body with over
500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques,
charities and schools.
For further information please contact:
The Muslim Council of Britain
PO Box 57330
London
E1 2WJ
Tel: 0845 26 26 786
Fax: 0207 247 7079
media@mcb.org.uk
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