I think a friend gave my child gelatine in food

[yetanothernamechnager]

I am very upset with him mum thinks I am being unreasonable

but notactually, as your children get older, surely you will allow them to choose if they want to eat meat?

well i can't actually stop them can i! also, i doubt they will want to; it's not like meat is going to be this amazing secret foodstuff they will wonder how they lived without is it.

We aren't talking about a 2 year old though we are talking about a 9 year old who should be more than capable of picking what he eats.

I don't force my child to eat meat, I feed him meals I know he likes some contain meat some don't I try not to restrict his diet at all. If when he is older he decides he wants to be vegetarian/vegan that's his choice exactly the same as if he chooses to be Muslim/Buddhist whatever.

The key thing is choice not forcing your choices on your child.

Ghostship in what way does Halal food cause unnecessary suffering? Not picking, just curious

belina Halal is slaughtered by cutting the animals throat and bleeding to death; the more traditional way is to stun and use electrocution or a bolt (shot). Sheep are often asphixiated by carbon dioxide.

I grew up in a community where everyone I knew was a vegetarian, all the kids i knew were vegetarians, our school had no meat. But now most of those kids have grown up into adults that do eat meat.

My 9 year old sister knows exactly what contains meat products and she will refuse sweets if she is not exactly sure of the content. If a nine year old chooses to either eat or not eat something in my opinion that is their choice. It sounds to me like OP's dc has not made a decision for himself and is not commited to being a vegan.

I suppose it comes down to how much you trust your child's decisions. I think children deserve some independent decisions so long as they don't wish to do something dangerous (I fail to see how a sweet is dangerous.)

Religious Slaughter
With over three million animals each year being killed within the confines of religious slaughter each year, it is an important element of the industry, although it is certainly a controversial one. The religious involved are primarily Judaism and Muslim, with the faiths dictating certain slaughter practices that do not sit totally comfortably with the traditional, modern slaughter methods.
The Jewish 'Kashrut' is a set of rules, regulations and beliefs surrounding their food and its preparation, which includes the accepted methods of slaughtering animals. Food which adheres to their dietary laws is known as kosher and animals slaughtered in a kosher manner means that they must be killed with one clean cut from a serrated knife.

Muslim beliefs regarding their meat relates to the term 'Halal', which refers to food which is acceptable as set forth by Sunnah. The slaughter methods also require a single cut to the throat, so that the blood can be drained from the animal. This practice if often criticised for the potential stress and pain inflicted on the animal is the single cut does not render it immediately and totally unconscious.

Non-Religious Slaughter
With the huge amounts of animals slaughtered every year for human consumption, the largest amount are killed commercially, through non-religious methods. This, however, does not mean that all methods are pain-free for the animals, although ever more raised awareness of the meat industry and its practices means that there is a growing list of acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour which helps the regulation and indeed prosecution of companies involved.
As the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act states, 'animals raised for food deserve as humane a death as possible' and they offer a list of acceptable procedures, all of which kill the animal immediately and painlessly.

Chemical

• this method is used for sheep, cattle and pigs and involves the animal being asphyxiated with a carbon dioxide gas.

Mechanical (Captive Bolt)

• this method is used for sheep, pigs, goats, calves, cattle and horses. A captive bolt stunner is used on the animal to render it immediately unconscious.

Mechanical (Gun)

• used for cattle, calves, sheep, pigs, goats and horses, this method sees a gun kills the animal instantly.

Electrical

• with this method, used for all animals, sufficient electrical current is applied to ensure surgical anaesthesia.

The Government View
Cruelty to animals is a criminal offence in the UK, as it is in many countries and this extends to the practices in slaughter houses. The government department that deals with such matters is DEFRA (the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), who accepts that religious slaughter takes place, but would prefer that all slaughtered animals were stunned initially.

poopoo your argument us becoming more and more farcical.

How the actual fuck am I denying them being baptised? Or to be know by Allah? I would never prevent my child being baptised if that is what they choose. Empgasis on the they.

And where have I said that I dont have a religion?

crescentmoon thanks for trying to insinuate I'm racist it has nothing to do with the colour of their skin. I am really offended at your suggesting that.

The different is clear, as Jumping has so kindly provided us with the information. Kosher animals are not 'drained'. Also Jewish people have to abide to non animal cruelty as their religion states they do do. Muslim religion does not do this.

Both I consider cruel, one of the two lesser. All animals should be stunned first.

Gnocchi. As i have said several times you are making decisions for your children, just as we all do until they are old enough to make their own. I don't particularly want to explain it all to you again because you are clearly too narrowminded or lacking in certain abilities to understand.

Most people don't 'get' veganism. I know more than one person who thinks it means no dairy but that they still eat meat! my husband recently offered our vegan overnight guest (for whom I had painstakingly label checked and cooked) honey with his breakfast toast. He was SO confused when I laughed at him. He just thought it meant no meat, fish or milk!

poopoo when are kids old enough to make their own decisions?

I'm going to drag you all back to this post, which is lost in the heat of debate.

JumpingThroughHoops Tue 07-Aug-12 09:28:22
Re the Halal thing. I bet you do eat it. Every school and every hospital uses halal meat, usually slaughtered in France, where there is a massive Halal industry. A lot of pub chains and restaurants use it too. The only public sector work place place that doesnt is the House of Commons.

I've complained about it, primarily because I don't see why I should have to eat meat prepared according to religious tradition. I also moan complain that if Halal meat is offered then kitchen utensils should also be segregated accordingly, other wise it is pointless having pork chops cooked in the same trays as Halal the following day.

And since anyone of any colour can practice ANY religion (including my white auntie who's Muslim) it's a bloody stupid thing to say anyway.

I missed that jumping. I think it's ridiculous how we're fed halal.

Do people really think that stopping a child eating processed, salt laden offal is cruel?

No I think parents stopping their child have a sweet is cruel.

I think parents telling their child what to do when they are at an age where they can decide for themselves is cruel and shows a lack of trust.

How is feeding a diet which doesnt exclude anything except things the child dislikes forcing anything?

I do wonder if poopoo is missing the fact this is a 9 year old? A 9 year old should be able to decide for themselves what they want to eat/believe. Of course parents and others will influence that decision but that is different from forcing something just because its what you do.

Ghostship, all vegetarian and vegan food is halal providing it does not contain alcohol, it's only meat products that need to be treated differently in order to be halal.

I doubt very much a person observing a vegetarian or vegan diet would find it acceptable to eat food contaminated by meat in any way. Therefore vagetarian and vegan food is halal by default.

Food preparation is a big deal, food contanimated with cutlery or utensils being used for non halal meat would render meals unacceptable for halal consumption.

This thread illustrates why Muslim parents don't let their young children go to friends houses for meals, the utter contempt for parental choices is really not nice. It's fine for people feel their children should be exposed to everything and allowed to make informed decisions in the future, however for those of us who wish to adhere to a set of rules have valid reasosn to have reservations given the replies here.

Ghostship one of the reasons that so much meat in this country is Halal is that allows the meat producers to sell the bits we won't eat to countries that will. As the vast majority of Halal slaughter in this country involves pre-stunned animals I don't see the difference between that and non Halal slaughter apart from the blessing said over the animal.

Surely it is better that if an animal is going to be slaughtered for food we use as much of that animal as possible rather than discarding some of it.

But he is 9 and could clearly stick to it if he wanted.... Which he hasn't. Time to loosen your grasp about controlling food then

Can I just chuck another one in?

From the Haribo site:

Are Haribo products HALAL?
ONLY Haribo products that are manufactured in our factory in Turkey are halal. All Haribo Gold-Bears and Haribo Raspberries sold in the US are made in our factory in Turkey and are Halal. You can find the country of origin on the back of all our packages.

And:

Haribo?s latest launch of the new ?Funny-Mix? has been produced especially for vegetarian consumers.

The Funny-Mix bag contains Haribo sweets that are made from a starch-based recipe and all the sweets are free from artificial colours.

This vegetarian specific Funny-Mix is not the first Haribo has created, the new mix will join Giant Strawbs and Giant Blackcurrants which are also made from a recipe suitable for vegetarians.

The new mix contains three varieties:

Cola Bottles
Starfish
Strawberry shapes