do you care if your meat is stunned before slaughter?

[salsmum]

Increasingly these days hospitals,schools, restuarants/takeaways and care homes are using Halal meat. I would like to know if the meat that I eat has been stunned before slaughter and find the Halal slaughter method particularly cruel (animals throat is cut while it is still concious) I just wanted to ask if any MNs would like to be given the choice whether they eat Halal meat and whether they would choose not to if the meat was labelled on the supermarket shelf? i.e. stating if the animal has been stunned prior to slaughter..some Halal meat the animals are pre-stunned beforehand IYSWIM? This isnt a post about religious beliefs so please don't flame me but mearly I'm interested to see if anyone else would rather have the choice to know

better link maybe?

don't understand how killing an animal (what ever the method) is respectful

thanks for that post Bollockstothis.

regarding the main question in the thread, I'm not convinced that halal vs non-halal is the main issue; from what I've read I think the divide is between 'sloppy with corners being cut' and 'done properly and professionally.'
I agree with Orm - I want to eat the highest welfare meat possible in terms of both life and death and it is annoying that it is so hard to find out about it.

and as an atheist I couldn't care less what prayers have been said over the animal I eat.

Apologies for being out of date Bollocks (nothing new in my case, it's me age!).

However, I still stand by what I said insofar that the slaughter of animals for meat is a barbaric and depraved practice regardless of the method employed.

If anyone's convinced that there is nothing cruel, immoral or wrong with meat eating and slaughterhouse methods, before you tuck into your Sunday lunch today, show your children

Was the OP asking to be lectured by a bunch of poe-faced veges? I think not.

I dont really give a damn how its killed - its going to end up on a plate anyway. People should pay more attention to how the animals were reared though.

The adoption of Halal meat by our institutions is another example of the quiet islamification of the UK TBH. Whether you think this is good or bad depends on your religion I suppose.

Vallhala - genuine question, hope you don't mine me asking - what do you do about feeding dogs? do you feed them veggie food as the lesser of two evils or do feed them meat on the grounds that they're natural carnivores?

Vallhala if you want to be a vegetarian, that is fine. You do that. I dont want to be a vegetarian. That might mean my attitude is "everything that is wrong with the world" (! - yeah that's the answer, if only we had realised earlier! ) then fine, that is your view.

I am under no delusion that there is no cruelty involved, and didn't say as such. But I choose to eat meat, you choose not to, and there's nothing you can do about that.

Off for a nice bacon sandwich now

Thankyou Bollocks for clearing up all the misinformation in Valhalla's post.

Valhalla, if you really, really think, that Tatty's comment that the quality of the animal's life is more important to her than its death is 'all that is wrong with the world' you are seriously deluded.

Do you eat dairy Valhalla? I seriously hope not, when you look at how many calves are killed each year to allow the milking cows to give us their milk.

Couldn't give a toss. As long as it's cheap and tastes nice.

That could be 'thankyou bollocks for clearing up all the bollocks'

I mind a lot, I don't want to eat Halal hence why i don't buy it. I don't like how its killed, handled or dispatched.

I like my meat to have had a good life and be killed as nicely as possible and that is why i only buy from the "meat like it used to be" company in Pinner.

Its a big old drive but the meat is great, all traceable.

I do not buy factory farmed meat. We eat meat rarely. But to say that caring about the animal's quality of life is more important that the death is not 'all that is wrong with the world', obviously. An animal's death is never going to be a pleasant thing.

As a farmer?s daughter, I have first-hand experience of animal slaughter. We pre-stunned all our animals prior to slaughter simply because it?s the law; the exception of course being religious ritual slaughter. We also raised our animals? free range.

I won?t go into detail about why it?s more humane to pre-stun as I don?t believe the OP is about that. The issue here is a lack of transparency around meat production and a lack of choice for the consumer.

Much of the Halal meat in the UK is in fact pre-stunned, so there is in fact very little difference to the slaughter process. However some animals are not pre-stunned and as evidence suggests, this DOES impose unnecessary pain to the animal. I therefore DO have an issue with not knowing how the animal has been slaughtered.

It?s is impossible to distinguish between Halal meat that has been produced using stunning methods and meat that hasn?t, which for me is the main concern here. I don?t have a problem with the religious connotations associated with Halal practices; I have a problem with not having a choice and not having access to the facts.

I don?t believe the increase use of Halal meat in restaurants, Hospitals and homes are a sign of ?Islamifaction?, I think it?s simply because Halal meat is often cheaper.

I would honestly rather eat Halal meat then others, as Riven has pointed out if its followed out correctly then its probably the best death possible for an animal thats going to be killed either way. I'm not Muslim I'm Pagan but I've researched how Halal meat is killed and I do prefer it that way so all my meat comes from Halal butchers. Not to mention its the only place I can get goat!

Riven - I dont know why its cheaper? Possibly imported? Its just my observations in Sainsburys and other retailers.

Also, what do you mean by 'proper' Halal?

I eat and enjoy meat - and will continue to do so.

I don't particularly concern myself over how it was killed

But Riven, due to the UK's strict welfare regulations animals reared here do have a good life, and slaughterhouses are designed so that cattle do not see blood or other animals being killed anyway. Have you ever been inside one? Frightened animals pose a much greater risk to the humans handling them - it's in everyone's interest to treat them gently and to design lairages and stunning crates thoughtfully.

I am jewish and only eat kosher meat, has to properly labelled - shechita (jewish ritual slaughter) is not so different from halal.

I am not an expert in this but I understand that not all animals are properly stunned hence many are still conscious when shot.

I also understand that the ritual slaughter process has to be carried out by very experienced people with an extemely sharp knofe and the animal dies almost instantaneously.

That all being said I think its everyone's right to choose (if they want) how the animal died.

Dittany - why gravitate towards this thread if you're a vegetarian and find it gruesome?