Should we know if our meat is Halal?

We don't buy chicken from Tesco since we found it was coming from Thailand some years ago. I have checked several time since and nothing has changed, although I hadn't noticed China so far! Don't we have chicken in this country?

I agree, Shel1951, they should put halal on the packet, both for those who want it and for those who want to avoid it.

An animal lover wouldn’t eat chicken from Tesco full-stop,

The worst supermarket whose "farms" engaged in appalling cruel chicken-rearing and who held out long after other supermarkets started to improve practices.

Open Cages:

tinyurl.com/549cfr7j

After this exposé, it took Tesco FIVE more years to start behaving more responsibility, bragging that chickens now have 25% more space.

www.opencages.org/blog/investigation-tesco-chickens-in-chronic-pain

That they allowed this to happen in the pursuit of profit was disgusting.

Meantime, the CEO is paid £10 million a year.

My advice is don’t shop there.

We absolutely should know. That way, consumers have the choice.

Yes, we should all be told what’s in our food and how any livestock is reared and killed. We can all make informed choices.

I agree that meat that is Halal should be labelled, and would go further as all animals should be stunned before being slaughtered.

Government response to a recent petition about this:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/740004

Absolutely people should be told the full facts.

I'm only too glad I've not eaten meat for decades (other than inadvertently a couple of times because of a restaurants inefficiency - grrr!!!). I would be livid to find I'd been conned into eating food I'd not chosen and just been expected to assume it was normal/not a problem.

I have been very surprised to hear recently that so much meat that is used in Britain is halal or kosher - as I'd honestly thought/assumed that was a tiny little section of the market/sold from specialist outlets. At the very least clearly marked as "not normal" - whatever way they wanted to phrase it. I had honestly thought "If it's in a normal shop or restaurant or whatever = it's normal"...

I've even read of schoolchildren being inadvertently served halal meat at school lunchtime - and their parents don't seem to have been asked for their agreement to that in advance...and nope...the kids just got served it!!!! Cue for me (if I'd had kids) thinking "I'm just waiting for my kids to get back from school before I tell them they've just turned vegetarian - as I can't trust their school - they've been conning us". Followed by investigating that school in other respects too - to see if they were trustworthy.

I am vegetarian because I am animal lover and I believe on their rights

Yes, meat should be labelled, also restaurants should declare the slaughter process.

I have eaten a plant-based diet since I was teenager, so for over 50 years. I am living proof that nobody needs to eat meat.

And while we have free choice, I take issue with people claiming to be animal lovers while only concerned about some animal rearing and slaughtering practices while accepting others.

I doubt any animal goes to slaughter without being terrified before they die. It’s done en masse. They will hear the cries of other animals in pain and distress and smell the blood as they wait their turn. It’s barbaric.

Few people would work in a slaughter house. Few would work as a butcher. Most get sentimental about the death of pet cats and dogs while seemingly not caring about how cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and turkeys die.

I realise that isn’t the point of the thread but the … I’m an animal lover but … is hypocrisy.

Are you also complaining about kosher meat? It’s killed in a very similar way yet has been available here for maybe 200 years .

We don’t eat meat but think if people do they should know where it is sourced from and if it is halal or not.

Indeed it is and mentioned in the Government's response to the recent petition and yet no mention of kosher meat in the opening post. I wonder why?

Yes.

Food and meat should be properly labelled. People should be told what they are buying. I agree with the Poster.

Probs because the label said 'halal' and not 'kosher'.

Some posters onother forums on here extolling the choice of ethnic restaurants they eat in, I presume are eating halal meat? Really cruel imo.

paddyann54

Are you also complaining about kosher meat? It’s killed in a very similar way yet has been available here for maybe 200 years .

Yes, I think all meat should be clearly labelled whether it's kosher, halal or whatever. That way, people can make the choice for themselves. It's also why I prefer to buy my meat from local butchers, so you know where it's been sourced etc.

Yes,we need to know if the meat that we consume is halal and better still ,if it has been stunned prior to slaughter. I guess that's it's too much information.
I worry more about the condition in which the animals live .
I believe that Sainsburys ,Asda and Tesco sell halal meat .
I think that 88% of animals killed for Muslim consumption are stunned first .

Stunning is against Jewish butchery .
Kosher meat is very expensive because a great deal of it is considered unfit for human consumption and thrown out.

How forunate cats and dogs are being fed farm animals and treasured by us !

It's interesting to read Leviticus in which lists of unsuitable animals are listed .

paddyann54

Are you also complaining about kosher meat? It’s killed in a very similar way yet has been available here for maybe 200 years .

Yes and it was traditionally only available from kosher butchers. There wasn't widespread slaughtering of animals according to kosher ritual. A supermarket selling kosher meat that isn't prepackaged will often have a dedicated concession counter. Today vast amounts of meat are halal butchered, far more than necessary to meet the Muslim population's need. Kosher meat will be marked as such, no observant Jew would accept it otherwise. Halal butchered meat should be labelled in exactly the same way so everybody knows what they're buying.

I'm not sure what the definition of an animal lover would be. I have dogs as pets, have owned horses for riding and have had ducks and a visiting peahen as guests ( they got fed) in the garden together with sheep grazing in my paddocks for part of the year. I have a responsible and caring attitude to the animals that I come into contact with but I do eat meat. However, I do care about the quality of the husbandry of the animals I consume and also how they are slaughtered so I buy meat that has been raised by local farmers and slaughtered at the small local abattoir, which I have visited. I do struggle, however, to buy locally farmed chicken but I do buy free range and my eggs come from a neighbour from free range hens.
If there's hypocrisy, I think it comes from those who don't care about how the animals spend their lives prior to slaughter but have strong views on the way they are slaughtered. I think the main stress at abattoirs is not about whether animals are stunned prior to slaughter but the handling of those animals in the time leading up to actual slaughter. Stunning an animal is not a guarantee that it has a stress free death.

That's pretty much how I see things too, foxie48.

My advice is don’t shop there.

That's all very well, Graphite, but just bear in mind that we don't all live in places where there is any choice without travelling at least 10 miles to another supermarket. We are fortunate to have 2 good butchers in this town who sell local meat, but the only supermarket of any size bigger than convenience store, is Tesco.

Wheniwasyourage. The “I have no choice so I have to use a store which engages in cruel practices” is a tired argument when there are organic and sustainable providers offering online shopping. I use Able & Cole for fruit and veg boxes when I cannot get out to local farm shops and markets.

Tesco is a five minutes walk way but I will not shop there precisely because they are the worst for not caring about how animals are treated just to save a buck while the CEO is paid £10 million a year.

You hit the nail on the head, Foxie, and argue it far better than I can from my biased position as someone who does not eat animal products, when you write:

However, I do care about the quality of the husbandry of the animals I consume and also how they are slaughtered so I buy meat that has been raised by local farmers and slaughtered at the small local abattoir … If there's hypocrisy, I think it comes from those who don't care about how the animals spend their lives prior to slaughter …

... turning a convenient blind eye to the cruelty but are upset by halal practices.

When animals are factory-farmed, never seeing the light of day, never allowed to roam, fattened to such an extent that their legs cannot bear the weight and the many other cruelties that go on, halal slaughter seems no better or worse. At least it’s finally over for the poor creatures.