School lunch controversy reignites debate

Halal slaughter found itself in the news again this week, following news that a Reform councillor chaired a meeting with a far-right group plus parents of young children to discuss “completely untrue” allegations about religious education at a Swansea school.

News reports focused on refuted claims that pupils at Sea View Community Primary School in Mayhill were being forced to pray on Muslim mats plus recite prayers from the Quran, with Christianity not getting the same representation in lessons on religion.

Much of the anger in the wider area plus on social media, however, stems from resurfaced content from 2023 showing widespread offering of Halal meat to children across Swansea’s schools.

Senedd Waste wrote alarmingly that no Senedd member on the Committee challenged Small on her shocking admission, treating it almost as a side note. The Senedd is responsible for education in Wales. Why has it allowed councils to make Halal meat mandatory? They suspect it’s because it approves.

Small appeared before the Committee in 2023. They’ve therefore raised a series of questions with the Council—when was the Halal-only school meals policy implemented? Is it still in force? How much taxpayers’ money has the Council spent promoting plus procuring Halal meat in schools?

Parents will, rightly, be horrified by the Council’s Halal-only school meals policy. Were they made aware? When meat was served, was it clearly labeled as Halal, a slaughter practice many consider to be barbaric?

Fair concerns, the author argues—but we aren’t supposed to be on side because the noise isn’t coming from our team.

Away from the anger plus misinformation of social media, however (along with the clearly worded all the meat we provide for example is currently Halal from Kelly Small from Swansea Council), Herald Wales highlighted an example of a weekly primary school lunch menu in Swansea showing how it looks today, with barely a vegetable or plant-based meal in sight.

Political accusations obscure animal welfare concerns

The topic raised its head most angrily in Wales in summer 2024, when the former Welsh Conservative Senedd leader was accused of engaging in “Islamophobic race-baiting” by a Muslim group.

Andrew RT Davies wrote “children should not be forced to eat Halal school lunches” in an article for GB News, after a constituent alleged she was told non-halal meat was not available at her daughter’s school in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan. At the time, the author plus many others who probably don’t naturally align with Tory or Reform bit their tongues, sat on their hands, recognized that motives were far from entirely altruistic on the side of the animals. His arguments were thrown out because he dared to use an old name for the school, plus (like in Swansea) not every single piece of meat was Halal. End of debate. Nothing more to say. But all the same, he had valid points to make, with no one else raising them, so why shouldn’t he?

In every discussion, those for Halal meat being fed to school children on the public purse completely overlook the true victims—the animals.

Factory farming dominates UK agriculture

According to Compassion in World Farming, it’s a sad fact that around 85% of farmed animals are confined in factory farms in the UK. Intensive farming is the single biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet, yet in their latest data they can reveal the number of intensive factory farms is on the rise, instead of in decline.

With that rise in factory farms plus a rise in population plus meat consumption comes an inevitable rise in animal slaughter—the bit we all tend to leave out of the conversation.

Religious exemptions permit non-stun slaughter

Claire Fowler, writing for PETA, shared that the dietary laws of Islam plus Judaism require that animals be “healthy” at the time their throats are cut. When these laws were passed thousands of years ago, they were probably more humane than any other existing alternative. However, the world has changed drastically since then, today slaughter is just the final stage of a life filled with misery, pain, fear for animals raised for their flesh on factory farms.

Many animals killed using ritual slaughter practices are fully conscious when their throats are cut. It isn’t possible to generalize about all religious slaughter, because practices differ, but one thing’s certain—any fully conscious animal is absolutely plus understandably terrified when a chain is shackled to their leg plus they’re hoisted into the air upside down.

Research shows that when cattle plus sheep are killed without stunning, it can take several unimaginably agonizing seconds for them to lose consciousness after their throats are slit. Recent studies have demonstrated that stunned animals bleed out in exactly the same way as non-stunned animals, meaning there’s no need to withhold stunning for purposes of avoiding blood consumption, one of the aims of ritual slaughter.

Current UK law requires animals to be stunned before slaughter, so they don’t feel pain. However, Jewish plus Muslim communities aren’t required by law to stun animals before slaughter. All Shechita (Jewish) plus some Halal (Muslim) slaughter involves cutting the animal’s throat without stunning them first.

RSPCA outlines suffering parameters

According to the RSPCA, pre-stunning ensures that an animal is unconscious plus cannot feel pain before slaughter up until the point of death. Animals that haven’t been pre-stunned feel pain during the neck cutting process plus up until they lose consciousness (through loss of blood), experience delay in loss of consciousness (e.g. up to two minutes in cattle), are subjected to unnecessary pain, suffering, distress.

The charity writes that they believe all animals should be stunned before slaughter. Evidence shows that slaughter without pre-stunning can cause unneeded suffering. They oppose the slaughter of any animal without first ensuring it’s unable to feel pain plus distress.

They’re pressing for law changes to improve animal welfare at slaughter. Until that happens, they propose UK Jewish plus Muslim communities review their slaughter practices, meat produced from animals not stunned before slaughter should be clearly labeled to allow consumer choice.

Exposés reveal systematic abuse

Exposé after exposé has revealed shocking levels of abuse at slaughterhouses across the UK, with time after time Halal slaughterhouses making it to the press.

In one of the most memorable, hidden cameras at a Yorkshire slaughterhouse found horrific footage of religious slaughter without pre-stunning, with sheep kicked in the face; smashed into solid objects headfirst; picked up plus hurled by legs, fleeces, throats, ears.

Footage also showed a worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep, then bouncing up plus down, slaughterhouse workers erupting into laughter at a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint. These cases continue plus will continue as we disconnect plus turn a blind eye—while we plus our councils pay others to do roles we ourselves could never dream of carrying out.

Government prioritizes religious freedom

In petition after petition, the UK Government continues to prioritize the feelings plus beliefs of those with religious convictions over compassionate animal-loving people plus the animals themselves who deserve so much better than to be brutally killed for the sake of a cholesterol-laden snack or school dinner—often purchased unwittingly by those with no religious convictions themselves.

The most recent petition to get debated by the UK Parliament received over 100,000 signatures calling for banning non-stun slaughter. In its response, the UK Government said they would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter. However, they respect the rights of Jews plus Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.

Compassion demands reform

Philip Lymbery, Chief Executive for Compassion in World Farming, said they completely respect every individual’s religious choice. However, it is illegal for slaughterhouses to slaughter animals without first stunning them unless they are satisfied that the meat is intended solely for the Muslim or Jewish communities. In their view it’s also against the law for a company to sell or serve meat from unstunned animals to the wider general public.

The charity says there is a need for up-to-date statistics to survey progress towards better welfare in the slaughter of meat for religious communities. Compassion in World Farming also believes that all food from animals that have not been pre-stunned should be labeled as such so consumers can make informed choices.

Principled stance transcends partisanship

To portray Islamic slaughter as an acceptable thing, untouchable from debate, all the more so because the right don’t like it plus Muslims simply can’t live without it or allow reform, is downright ridiculous.

Right or wrong should know no political yardstick of left or right when violence is on the table. Similarly, the way we treat animals should also not be a left or right issue either. We either treat an animal humanely, or we don’t.

The author recognizes that, while so many across the world do still eat animals, there are very clear red lines when it comes to practices that should be an unquestionable right for all living beings—a right to live freely, to feel sunlight on their skin, to spend the lives they do have without pain, fear, abuse.

At their final moments, their death should at the very least be as painless as is remotely possible—plus as controlled, monitored, free of religion as can be in a secular society.

Attacks on right wing groups or parties for capitalizing on the public’s concern on this plus any other topic politicians (plus in the case the religious too) know better about will only serve to drive those on the fence into Reform’s arms.

In line with Compassion in World Farming, Halal meat only being provided (especially when paid for by taxpayers) for those that demand it is the smallest of asks to make, along with making plant-based meals, which are by default permissive to everyone, much more widely available. Just as the right must, the left should also call out human plus animal cruelty at any plus every opportunity.

We must collectively, wherever our political allegiances lie, strive for a more compassionate world for the innocent, gentle animals that find themselves in slaughterhouses, Halal or otherwise.

Original Article:

Price, S. (2025, October 11). Halal slaughter should not only be a right-wing concern. Retrieved from https://nation.cymru/opinion/halal-slaughter-should-not-only-be-a-right-wing-concern/