Marks&Spencer's hypocrisy re. 'Higher Animal Welfare' claims

[MrOnionsBumperRoller]

Marks and Spencer claim all their meat is 'higher welfare', banging on about their commitment to welfare standards on their website, yet sell halal meat. I am appalled at their blatant hypocrisy. I am a meat eater (higher welfare, home 'grown' eggs, local dairy milk). How can they claim to care about animal welfare when they sell this stuff?

You’re the hypocrite here I’m afraid. There is no kind way to kill and eat animals.

Halal refers to the method of killing. It does not force pain or fear before the animals death. I understand in the uk you must make the animal unconscious before halal killing,

If this concerns you, are you aware that some animals smell death and are screaming as they are taken into the abattoir?

You do know that there's no difference in how the animal is killed for the type of halal meat that M&S sell, there's just a prayer recording playing while it happens? Most mass market halal meat in the UK is like this, eg takeaway and restaurant chains.

Anyone wanting 'proper' halal meat would go to a much smaller scale specialist Muslim butcher.

I agree with PP. If you are concerned about animal welfare you wouldn’t eat them

Dairy calves at a 'higher welfare' farm that supplies milk to M&S:

www.itv.com/news/2017-03-28/heartbreaking-footage-of-calves-caged-in-pens-at-farm-which-supplies-milk-to-marks-spencer-is-released/

This was the story that pushed me to go from veggie to vegan.

Halal meat, as others have said, isn't any crueller in any objective sense than the 'higher welfare' meat you say you usually enjoy.

What do you think halal actually means? Seriously?

I suggest you do research and look at what really happens 8n any abbotoire in the UK. Neanderthals gleefully inflicting fear and pain, halal or otherwise. If you do not want to watch the way animals are killed, you should not eat meat.

Higher welfare is about how they were treated during their lives. Halal is how they died.

Warning (description of killing):
I’ve visited an abattoir during the halal slaughter before (part of work experience when I was a teenager so this memory is 25 years old). My first impression was shock at the amount of blood. The floor was awash, however I now realise that a lot of that would have been diluted with water as the carcasses were washed.
The death itself seemed reasonably quick to be honest. The sheep came in through one door in a side room. The man took each sheep and wrapped a rope loosely around its back legs. He then pulled up the head and slit the throat. The rope tightened, pulled the sheep upside now above a bath. The sheep wiggled for maybe 2-3 seconds and then went still. For those moments it did look scared and I remember feeling really awful as it was the first time I saw an animal die (I obviously saw more die in other areas of work experience which were sad for different reasons). I have to say I was surprised how quick it all seemed to be. The sheep being brought in were bleating but the bleating didn’t seem more harsh than bleating of sheep being moved from one area to another anyway.

All in all I didn’t see the halal killing in this particular abattoir as any more cruel than other forms of killing. The life and treatment of the animals during their lives is much more important to me.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-50986683?fbclid=IwAR2WLD8xgpmm5K9wPKLMfVEnOb_8W-L6Uyl023fJMBs9_-UhHItnDf0EHVc
BBC story - confessions of a slaughterhouse worker. Doesn't mention halal, does sound horrific beyond imagination. FYI, regardless of the welfare standards of the farm, the majority of animals end up at the abattoirs like this one.

Post-stun halal slaughter is exactly as cruel or kind as any other British meat slaughter. The chickens don’t care whether there’s a prayer playing in the background.

If you had evidence that M&S were buying from no-stun halal slaughterhouses, or were buying the leftover parts of kosher slaughtered animals then you’d have a point.

Maggie that was sad to read but very informative.

You do realise that higher welfare meat is still killed and the animals are terrified right? There’s enough information and documentaries out there that you can access if you want to actually view it.

It’s funny how so many people become really invested in how their meat is killed when it’s halal. Wonder why that is .....

I often wonder that myself, @gamerwidow. We may never figure it out...

Do you know what halal is? Would you feel the same if it said kosher?

You’re the hypocrite here I’m afraid. There is no kind way to kill and eat animals.

I know where you are coming from - I don't eat meat - but there are ways of killing that cause X degrees of suffering, and there are ways that involve Xx1000000 degrees of suffering.

Halal is downright sick and has no place in any civilised society.

I will ever understand the issue with halal meat. The animals you eat are treated like utter shit, living miserable lives and then killed cos you like the taste of them. Take your dog for a walk give him a cuddle then whinge about halal meat. If you were that bothered you wouldn't eat any animals.

Unfortunately it's Kosher meat that's the issue if you have a problem with the kill method, as it can't be stunned before being killed

Halal meat can still be stunned before the kill, there's just a cd on loop in the background.

Halal meat sold in major supermarkets is all stunned before slaughter and there is no welfare issue compared to other UK meat unless you think it's tough for the staff having a prayer tape battling with Radio One.

Less than 5% of halal meat produced in the UK is unstunned, and pretty much all ends up in halal butchers for customers who will pay a premium for it. Kosher meat similarly ends up only in specialist establishments.

Slaughterhouses I've visited (about a dozen) have been remarkably calm places - no-one wants a panicked bull, after all. Death throes are ugly to look at but doesn't mean an animal is in pain - eg chickens or mice can run around without heads for a few minutes, similar goes for larger animals.

ruddynorah
Your post doesn't make sense.

If you were that bothered you wouldn't eat any animals.
I am bothered and I don't eat any animals. So, now what?

@MrOnionsBumperRoller

I'm going to assume this is a deliberately goady faux-ignorant post that is attempting to imply that all halal meat is non-stunned? (It isn't)

You likely are aware that the only difference between stunned Halal meat (which M&S use) and stunned non-halal meat is the recording of a prayer being played.

I'd love to see what evidence you can produce that shows that the playing of a recorded prayer is detrimental to animal welfare.

I’d be more concerned that the majority of their chicken is not free-range than about the method of killing. ‘Higher welfare’ means little.

you don’t complain about how it has sold kosher meat all these years , bur maybe if you were not so ignorant you would know kosher and halal meat follows the exact same process. And the point of one clean cut of the throat is to instantly kill the animal so it feels no pain, then the blood is drained as animal blood is dirty and contains toxins