Maybe I’m just being a little too sensitive to this at the moment. But anyway. BBC Radio 4 on in the background, and they’re talking about listeners’ concerns that they (the listeners) might be eating halal meat without being aware that they are doing so. This based on the statistic that something like 25% of meat in the UK market is halal, but only 3% of the population is muslim.
There’s an elephant in the room! (And I think it might be halal.)
The reason given why so many people were worried about eating halal meat without being aware of doing so was the conditions of slaughter – in particular, the thought that animals might be concscious right up to the moment of slaughter.
My first thought: if you’re so concerned about the welfare of animals in the time before they’re killed for your delectation, well, either don’t eat meat or find out where it comes from before you eat it. I find the fact that you’re worried only when you find out that the meat might be halal somewhat empty if you don’t normally care.
The radio segment was rational and factual – the gist being the majority (at least 90%) of halal-slaughtered animals are stunned by electric shock before slaughter.
My guess is that, given the mode of slaughter, they are actually reasonably well treated (eg at least handled personally) than animals in a conventional western abbatoir. The halal abbatoirs are probably also much smaller, which means much less stench of fear for and from the animals waiting to be slaughtered.
Me? I prefer my meat when it comes from the cows my parents raise, slaughtered at our local small abbatoir. That, or kangaroo meat, which is often killed by a bullet to the head by a gun and person unseen by the ‘roo. If these aren’t accessible, I try to eat organic meat, on the basis that, again, this is likely to have been slaughtered in smaller abbatoirs. I’d be quite happy to eat halal – or, for that matter, kosher – meat (although you can’t get a decent rump steak because of the halal and kosher rules about blood).
If you care so much, find out – not just whether it’s halal or not, but exactly what goes on at the abbatoir where your meat is slaughtered. If you only care because the phrase “ZOMG HALAL ICKY MUSLIM” explains your reasoning process, then I have no time for your bigotry.
Wallaby 
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