To ask if a school turning its canteen halal of kosher is them imposing a faith on people

[Souredstones]

I don't know how I feel about this but a Facebook post has really made me think if a school canteen is halal or kosher then isn't it imposing a faith on its pupils? Or is it? I don't know so I defer to the wise ladies of Mumsnet for a decision

Both the RSPCA and the RCVS consider halal slaughter to be barbaric.It should be illegal in the UK.I would be furious if this were happening in my school

If the animal has to be conscious then what Crescent says about stunning cant be true. Perhaps we ought to check what the rule actually is?

Temple Grandin's research here

Having read through it and seen both normal and ritual slaughterhouses I'd say its mass production that is the main issue. You have thousands of animals going through daily then you have problems. Popping outside and whipping the head off a backyard chicken for dinner, one that has lived a free range life is far more humane. We eat far too much meat in the west, hence the mass slaughter, hence the cruelty of all methods. IMO

And yes, I'm a total hypocrite as I eat fish. I'm sure their deaths, as they suffocate arent particuarly pleasant either.

In a way we should not be discussing the rights or wrongs of halal slaughter, but people's choice of whether or not they want to eat it.
I can't see why someone else's wish to eat halal meat should take precedence over my wish not to.

I would not eat halal, if I ate meat. Can the halal-eaters not have the veggie option? In the same way I would if I wanted to eat meat but found it to be only halal?

MaidofStars -no problem. The whole subject of slaughter / halal makes me feel sick to the stomach. I was reading about it last night and then couldn't sleep.

My friend has pet sheep and the thought of this happening to them is horrendous. Animals have thoughts and feelings too.

"Organic meat can often be associated with poorer welfare."

Rubbish - have you looked at the standards required for organic meat?

"""Forbidden to you (for food) are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that over which has been invoked other than the name of God, that which has been killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a headlong fall or by being gored to death, that which has been partly eaten by a wild animal, unless you are able to slaughter (in due form), and that which is sacrificed on stone (altars)." (5:3)"

Sorry, but how can "Forbidden to you (for food) are dead animals, blood..." Be interpreted as anything other than 'don't eat meat'. How does the method of killing have anything to do with it? If you kill it to eat it - it's dead!

"Organic meat can often be associated with poorer welfare."

Rubbish - have you looked at the standards required for organic meat?

Actually you are both right. Remember all the snow we had at the start of the year? Organic farmers who kept their chickens indoors for their entire life (about 80 days) couldn't sell them as organic, they have to be able to get outside for the label, even if the snow is deeper than the height of the chicken.

On a slight tangent, how are girls in the school demanding burqas as part of the school uniform going to eat their school dinners??

Crescentmoon - so the animal's suffering is prolonged purely for the benefit of the human, who can gobble up much more meat than he needs with a clear conscience?

Crescentmoon - you said earlier that muslims tend to eat a lot of meat, and that the animal is left unstunned for the human's benefit. If they only ate meat when tbey needed to, there would be less animal suffering.

You are proposing to police the amount of meat Muslims are allowed to eat

No one needs to eat meat.

crescent - I am not familiar with the quote and I could see that it was clearly being interpreted to mean carrion but reading it as it was posted sounds to me like 'don't eat meat' which tbh would save a lot of problems anyway :)

Fanjo - I believe that everyone should avoid causing animals to suffer needlessly. That is what decent people do, whatever religion they belong to.

If you want to not cause animals to suffer, probably best to stop killing and eating them. Petty arguments about which way to kill them is the kindest are just arbitrary nonsense.

Peppi Petty arguments about which way to kill them is the kindest are just arbitrary nonsense

Why? Because you say so? I'm afraid it will take more than that to persuade me that a barbaric, antiquated method of slaughter is preferable to a more humane one. As the higher species, we have the power to reduce suffering. And we should do so.

And to be frank, I'm growing tired of the "white non-Muslims already eat halal meat because they all eat takeaways/kebabs/pizzas" stereoptyping - we don't!

Too right LessMissAbs and it's not because I don't like them, it's because I can't buy them any more as my choice to not have my meat killed in a barbaric manner has been taken away from me. Obviously my opinion is of no interest, even the RSPCA stays strangely silent, they must be too busy prosecuting old ladies for overfeeding their labradors.

Pretty damn hard for a school to keep a kosher kitchen - certainly a glatt kosher kitchen. I don't see how this would happen at a school where there were significant numbers of non-Jewish attendees.

If you really care about animal welfare it is of course entirely your.choice to be vegetarian or choose what meat you eat.

But you can't impose it on others or tell them they should eat less meat.

Fanjo - everyone should have the choice not to eat halal meat, and everyone has the right to express their own opinions.

I can tell people that to eat more unstunned halal meat than your body needs is cruel, because they are causing unnecessary suffering. Why cause pain to another sentient being just to satisfy your own greed?

Fanjo - there was also no mention of imposing this on muslims - you love twisting my posts.