Halal meat ?

[weekendwellies]

My eldest announced last night that she wants me to stop shopping at my usual supermarket! The reason being is that top uk supermarkets are selling halal meat without labeling it as such, and she objects to the halal methods of slaughter. Waitrose, M&S, Sainsburys, Tesco, Somerfield and Co-op sell it, also Dominos, Pizza Hut, KFC, Nandos, and Subway also use it without informing customers, Asda refused to comment.

After my initial irritation that I should have to change my shopping practices for one of her fads I began to see her point. I personally dont object to people buying halal if they want to or if they need to for religious reasons. I think the supermarkets should give us the option of buying halal or non halal, whichever is our preference and I do think that the supermarkets should have to label it as such, the same way they have to label everything for everything else they can possibly think of. We all have a right to know what we are buying.

[OverWyreGrower]

I take it the specific practice she is in objection to is the killing without stunning first, rather than the religious aspect of it?

Halal meat: the truth | From the Guardian | The Guardian

[weekendwellies]

yes, absolutely.
Its nothing to do with the religion.
We are not in the least racist or any other 'ist. ~The girls have lots of muslim friends along with jewish, hindu, and christian ones. Very multicultural, us.

[Nicos]

That would be a major concern for me too to be honest.

[OverWyreGrower]

Previously, it would have been for me too.

However, since slaughtering our own birds (especially turkeys), we have used the same method, as we are not qualified to stun the birds and it's nigh on impossible to physically break a turkeys neck in the same way you would a chickens. The birds are kept calm, and it's all over very quickly (much quicker than I thought it would be actually).

So, really, it doesn't bother me anymore. I'm much more concerned about the welfare of the animal before slaughter - where it has lived, what's its been fed on etc; than the actual slaughter.

[chris]

hmm.. i've always been of the mindset that if you're prepared to eat meat, you should be prepared to be able to do the deed.

Does slicing the jugular, wind pipe and what not cause a lot of suffering before death? I'd have thought death would have been pretty much straight away?

[PAULW]

Cutting the throat causes a dramatic loss of blood pressure rendering the animal unconscious, its more the thought of having the throat cut than the result that upsets people.

[Shadylane]

Well the article suggests animals that are killed without stunning suffer no more than those that are and that some that are killed for halal are stunned anyway so...hmm, interesting.

[OverWyreGrower]

Does slicing the jugular, wind pipe and what not cause a lot of suffering before death? I'd have thought death would have been pretty much straight away?

Last year, the turkeys lasted less than a minute after physical slaughter - even the big male, who was over 2 stone in weight. There is some flapping (the same as if you wring a chickens neck) and you can feel/see the heart stopping beating.

[Two_Sheds]

if you're prepared to eat me, you should be prepared to be able to do the deed.

Freudian slip, brilliant

[lizzylemon]

Tricky, and will have to come down to personal choice at the end of the day (and financial constraints for me too) but I saw a program a while back about the way animals are slaughtered for meat and it showed 2 different S.Houses.

One of the houses used the stun method and the other didn't. Interestingly, the animals which went to be stunned seemed more un-settled and distressed than the ones that went straight to slaughter. There were various theories as to why it un-settles the animals, but it was very thought provoking. After seeing that program I would prefer Halal to be honest.

[rustylady]

I personally see nothing wrong with Halal meat. However I do wonder whether supermarkets are actually selling Halal meat without labelling it as such. Surely they could up the prices if they actually labelled it as Halal (specialist) and we know what they are like for profit margins.

[Snadger]

I am just wondering what the law of the land is on this one? I can understand various religions getting special dispensation to use the Halal method of killing but when this becomes the norm it makes a mockery of the original law doesn't it?

[Seahorse]

Mmm, Google throws this up as a Daily Mail 'investigation' where various supermarkets 'confessed' to selling Halal meat.

Top supermarkets secretly sell halal: Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose, and M&S don't tell us meat is ritually slaughtered | Mail Online

Tbh I don't know enough about the issues to make a definitive comment but the Fail just make it sound like one of their 'why oh why?' veiled racism articles.

[pjh75]

There was a discussion on tv about this a few months ago... they seemed to be focusing on larger animals where it took more than a couple of minutes for them to die the halal way.

I personally think that everyone has a right to know what they are eating so if something is halal it should say so.