Schools are hit by unstunned halal meat ban
SCHOOLS in Whitworth will be banned from serving Halal meat from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter.
The move comes after a vote by Lancashire County Councillors.
Leader Geoff Driver insisted the decision was not intended to offend religious groups and was simply an ‘animal welfare issue.’
“It is not anti-Semitic and it is not anti-Muslim as, sadly, some people are trying to make it out to be,” he said during a meeting of the full council.
“Nobody can sensibly argue that the animals so slaughtered do not suffer serious stress, pain and discomfort, both in the actual process of slaughter but also in their being prepared for that slaughter.
“In this day and age there is simply no need for animals to suffer such stress, pain and discomfort.”
He suggested that the Lancashire Council of Mosques is ‘out of step’ with the majority of Muslims on this matter.
LCC currently supplies 27 schools with unstunned Halal meat, catering for 12,000 children.
In the free vote, a majority of county councillors opted to support banning un-stunned Halal meat in schools and Lancashire County Council establishments, with the exception of poultry.
The controversial motion prompted a heated debate, both in and out of the chamber, on the ethics of killing animals that had not been stunned before slaughter.
Coun Driver exempted poultry from the ban as stunning chickens may kill them before slaughter which contravenes Muslim religious rules. He added: “In this day and age there is simply no need for animals to suffer such stress, pain and discomfort.
“It is a fact that 84 per cent of Halal meat in this country comes from animals that were stunned before they were slaughtered. It would appear that the Lancashire Council of Mosques is out of step with the huge majority of Muslims and Muslim scholars in this country.”
Labour coun Mohammed Iqbal had spoken in favour of an amendment to delay the decision until a full consultation with affected schools had been carried out. He said: “Here we are saying to our children that we know best. We’ll dictate what food they can and can’t eat. Is it the case that we do not trust children to make a freedom of choice at that school county?”
Some fear the decision could spark a repeat of the widespread boycott of school dinners after a similar proposal was raised in 2013 and the Lancashire Council of Mosques’ insisted that only meat from non-stunned animals met its strict interpretation of Islamic dietary rules.
The Halal Food Authority states that Halal meat is that which adheres to an Islamic ritual called Zabihah, which requires animals to be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter, but there are differences of opinion within Muslim communities as to exact definition of what constitutes Halal.