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31st March 2004; immediate use
Government Urged to Ban Religious Slaughter
Over 70% of British population want an end to religious
exemption on prestunning
On the eve of the publication of the Government’s
response to last year’s Farm Animal Welfare Council
(FAWC) report on slaughter, campaigning vegetarian organisation
Viva! has again called on the Government to ban religious
slaughter without prestunning. FAWC’s report stimulated
great controversy last year when it made the same call but
an NOP opinion poll commissioned by Viva! has shown no public
acceptance for the practice. Just 22 per cent believed it
should still be permitted, seven per cent didn’t know
but 71 per cent thought that killing animals in this way
should not be allowed to continue.
All food animals in Britain are killed by having their throats
cut but the law requires that they are first rendered unconscious.
However, animals killed for Muslim halal and Jewish kosher
meats, can be slaughtered by throat cutting without prestunning.
It can take a cow 60 seconds to lose consciousness – a
calf twice this time. FAWC’s report spoke of the “very
significant pain and distress …” caused by throat-cutting
and called for the exemption permitting religious slaughter
without prestunning to be repealed.
Viva! has filmed both mainstream and religious slaughter
for its video Sentenced to Death which includes legal and
illegal Muslim slaughter and what is believed to be the only
available footage of Jewish Shechita slaughter in the UK.
In addition to the opinion poll, Viva! has also tabled a
Parliamentary Early Day Motion (No 104) on the subject which
calls for the Government to work with Muslim and Jewish communities
for an end to slaughter without prestunning. As of today’s
date, 77 MPs have signed the EDM.
Viva! campaigner Alistair Currie says “Slaughter without
prestunning is far from the only severe welfare problem at
slaughter but it’s the only one that can be solved
with a single act – the repeal of the current exemption
for religious slaughter. No one wants to see the law intruding
on religious practice but a complete voluntary end to this
kind of slaughter arising from within the Muslim and Jewish
communities simply isn’t going to happen. Ministers
and officials have been shelving this issue for years and
years because it’s such a hot potato politically – that
must not continue. Over 70 per cent of the British people
want to see an end to it and so does every animal welfare
organisation in the UK. Religious tolerance is important
but it doesn’t justify everything and it certainly
doesn’t justify the severe animal suffering caused
by slaughter without prestunning.”
Notes for Editors
The survey was carried out by NOP World between 12-14 September
2003 amongst 1000 adults aged 15 +. The question asked was: “You
may or may not know that in Britain, the law requires that
all farmed animals are stunned and are unconscious before
being killed by having their throats cut. However, some groups
for religious reasons, are allowed to cut the throats of
fully-conscious animals without prestunning them. Do you
think that this practice should or should not be allowed
to continue?”
Copies of the video are available from Viva!. Viva! has
also published an extensive referenced report on this issue,
Going for the Kill, which can be viewed online at http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/ritual_slaughter/Goingforthekill.htm
An estimated 9-10 million animals are slaughtered without
prestunning each year, although no complete official record
of numbers is kept.
-ends –
Viva!
8 York Court
Wilder Street
Bristol
BS2 8QH
T: 0117 944 1000
F: 0117 924 4646
E: press@viva.org.uk
W: www.viva.org.uk
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