UK Parliament discussing whether to ban Jewish ritual slaughter today ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, June 09, 2025

UK Parliament discussing whether to ban Jewish ritual slaughter today

MPs are holding a debate on banning halal and kosher slaughter of animals, after thousands of Britons signed a petition demanding better animal welfare. It will be held in Westminster Hall, meaning that while there won’t be a vote it will be the first debate of the religious practice in parliament for years.

The showdown was forced as a result of a public petition on the parliamentary website, entitled: “Ban non-stun slaughter in the UK”, which garnered 109,018 signatures. It read: “In modern society, we believe more consideration needs to be given to animal welfare and how livestock is treated and culled. We believe non-stun slaughter is barbaric and doesn't fit in with our culture and modern-day values and should be banned, as some EU nations have done."

A Government response on January 10 defended the practice, arguing that while it would “prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter… we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.”

Muslims are complaining that this is just using animal welfare as an excuse to attack them. They have a point. Hunting is still allowed in Great Britain, and there is obviously no stunning beforehand. But British culture is more important than Jewish and Muslim religious precepts.

Many Muslims do say that stunning the animals does not invalidate the eating of animals, but stunned animals are not kosher.

The organization that brought the petition mentions cases of abuse seen in Halal and kosher slaughterhouses, but they also admit they see abuses even in slaughterhouses that stun the animals. They also said (as I recall) that they saw knives in the halal slaughterhouses that were not sharp. I have no idea about that, but if the knives in a kosher slaughterhouse are not super- sharp, the food would not be kosher.

I am all for treating the animals to the highest standards in the slaughterhouses, and the kosher meat industry has improved a great deal in recent decades. But there is no evidence that the actual slaughter itself, when done properly, is more painful than the process of stunning is (when it works.)

The UK government's response to the petition seems like it will defend Jews and Muslims' religious rights. That's good news. But who knows how long that will last?