Halal meat

[Gemini]

This is a topic some of us have been involved in on FB. I think it deserves a topic here.

I fully support members of different ethnic and religious groups having access to specialist foods. I may not agree with some aspects of it, but I respect their culture. Just as I don't approve of babies having their ears pierced, but accept that in certain cultures it is the done thing - acceptable to them.

However the fact that more and more of the meat we buy is a product of Halal butchering is not acceptable to me. It should be available yes, but it should be clearly labelled as such, so that those of us who prefer not to eat meat slaughtered in this way know what we are eating and have a choice.

Not everyone is able or can afford to go to farm shops, where we can be confident where our meat comes from. Not all high streets have butchers nowadays. We should be able to buy our meat in supermarkets, M&S etc, and not be unwittingly eating Halal meat.

I know my vegan and vegetarian friends would say no slaughter methods are good, so we shouldn't eat meat at all if we care. To my mind however, this method is unacceptably cruel.

Here are a couple of interesting links. One which shows which shops and restaurants sell this meat, the other explaining a bit about the methods.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-label-it.html



http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...d-9331519.html

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I agree totally Gem. Eating halal meat is a choice but most of us are not given a choice since the meat we buy isn't labeled halal or not halal. I was looking at the sweets in Waitrose the other day and picked up some real fruit jellies. I always check the ingredients in the hope that some jellies may not contain gelatine since I don't want to feed the grandchildren boiled animal remains in their sweets. To my absolute surprise these "healthy" fruit jellies contained halal beef gelatine. It's everywhere. Why? The answer is of course money. If the meat in the supermarket is halal they hope that it will be purchased by muslim and non muslim alike. An interesting subject. I personally eat very little meat but I still would like the choice.

[Oma]

Your right BL it's in all sorts of things , as we had this discussion on face book I was saying I try to buy as much as I can from a farm shop about 20 miles away but sometimes I have no choice but to use the supermarket , although I'm not a big red meat eater it's mostly chicken and Turkey I eat , I would still love to have the choice though

[Elisi]

As most of you know it was I who put up the post on my timeline.

Thank you Gem for bringing it here too. It is a particular angst of mine that we have this inhumane method of slaughtering animals in our country and that furthermore we are not allowed the choice of whether to buy this cruelly slaughtered meat because it is mostly unlabeled as such.

We are not really big meat eaters but if we do partake we want and need to know the animal did not suffer and was stunned before slaughter. Come to that, writing about killing something living in order to eat it makes my stomach churn a wee bit and I have quite a desire to turn vegetarian.

Ive put a petition from change.org up on my timeline to Theresa May for a revision in the law. At the very least we need clear labeling so we can make choices. Xxx

[Bizzy Lizzy]

http://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/farm/slaughter/religiousslaughter

This is the RSPCA position but I don't hear much about animal welfare groups campaigning or lobbying parliament about this or am I missing something?
When there was a big influx of Jewish refugees into this country we were not all made to eat kosher meat. There were - and still are - kosher butchers but they are few and far between. However, halal meat is everywhere and not labeled as such.
Can you put a link to your petition please Elisi so that those of us that care about this issue can sign and share on social media.

[Glammanana]

We should all be made aware of where and how our meat/poultry and indeed all food we consume is produced it is our right to know this information I will fully support any petition raised to this issue,I am also of the thinking that giving up meat would not be a bad thing to do in the long run.

[Elisi]

http://Www.change.org/p/rapt-hon-The...ter-in-the-uk?

into the search when Change.org comes up put in. Halal meat.....it will take you to the petition.

also it is now on my timeline and my daughter's plus one of our members here who rarely comes on but lives relatively close to me, 40 odd miles , has expressed her desire to do something, anything, so, in weeks to come, I shall be contacting her and perhaps we can organise a small demo outside tesco, which is the worst culprit alongside Aldi.

Thanks everone xxx

[Clover]

I can't bear the idea of Halal meat. Those poor,poor animals.

[Oma]

I have just been doing a bit poking around and Lidl do NOT use any halal meat it's all from British farms and slaughtered by the stun method first , if this company can do that then so can lots more

[Elisi]

Well researched Oma. I found the same, and that all Aldi meat IS halal! There are groceries I like there but I shall avoid Aldi's meat in future. Lidl has come on a lot and is now a super place to shop and we have two stores so will just go there.

[Daisy]

I am shocked to realise how much of the meat on our supermarket shelves is halhal. I've signed the petition, but we can all of us vote with our feet and not buy meat from unidentified sources.

I've never been able to understand any belief system that sanctions and even promotes cruelty to animals. Surely we, the human race, have a duty to all the other creatures on God's earth.

[Bizzy Lizzy]

http://Www.change.org/p/rapt-hon-The...ter-in-the-uk?

into the search when Change.org comes up put in. Halal meat.....it will take you to the petition.

also it is now on my timeline and my daughter's plus one of our members here who rarely comes on but lives relatively close to me, 40 odd miles , has expressed her desire to do something, anything, so, in weeks to come, I shall be contacting her and perhaps we can organise a small demo outside tesco, which is the worst culprit alongside Aldi.

Thanks everone xxx

Gosh there are a lot of petitions under Halal meat.
We don't have a Lidl anywhere near us but I am now thinking I should make the journey to buy meat from them. What is needed is big groups of animal welfare activist demonstrating outside places like Waitrose and Tesco as that tends to create more publicity. This sort of thing used to happen quite a bit in our area - there are always demos about live exports at the port still. I think the people involved are now getting older though and no young ones are joining or willing to spend time demonstrating. We had regular demonstrations outside a leather shop in the High Street when they were selling real fur coats. It worked and they stopped stocking them. Shops don't like to have bad publicity so it does carry quite a bit of weight.

[Plantaholic]

Checked Waitrose and they deny that they sell halal meat.

[Gemini]

Hopefully this publicity will make a difference. Shops who do sell it will surely have to change and at least label the Halal meat as such