We Demand a Ban on the Religious Slaughter of Animals without Pre-Stunning on Animal Welfare Ground

The Religious Slaughter of animals for food, without pre-stunning, is currently allowed in the United Kingdom and is exempt from EU Slaughter Regulations that require the animal to be pre-stunned prior to slaughter.

We recognise that religious beliefs and practices should be respected, but we also believe that the welfare of these animals should be paramount and slaughtered under the most humane conditions possible.

Non-stun methods cause suffering to millions of farm animals every year. When an animal is Slaughtered by cutting its throat it can take up to two minutes for cattle to lose consciousness and up to two and a half minutes or more for poultry, sometimes this process can be much longer .
Without pre-stunning this would cause very significant pain and suffering in the period before insensibility supervenes

The level of restraint required to expose and cut the throat whilst holding the animal still, until it had bled out, is far greater than that needed for conventional slaughter.
Pre-stunning delivers an instant loss of consciousness when it is done correctly thereby relieving the animal of this extra suffering and distress.

Slaughter without prior stunning has been banned in many other countries, including Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark. Why hasn't the UK?

If our animals have to be slaughtered then we demand it is done in the most humane way possible and that a ban on non-stun slaughter is enforced with no exceptions