The British government has ‘no intention’ to outlaw religious slaughter despite a petition demanding an outright ban on slaughtering animals without stunning them that has attracted more than 100,000 supporters.
According to The Daily Mail, proponents of the petition, which is backed by the British Veterinary Association (BVA), said that they respect religious traditions but ''we support a human death for all animals as a priority.''
British legislation respects Jewish and Muslim slaughter practices and permits them to continue slaughtering their meat as per tradition.
Campaigners will now press for a fresh debate in parliament on the issue on Monday.
Last year, in a speech to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to uphold legal exemptions for religious purposes for Jewish shechita and Muslim halal.
Repeated calls for a ban on the religious slaughter of animals have become an “obsession” of the animal rights lobby and are in danger of damaging wider community relations, religious groups have warned.
Jewish and Muslim leaders have accused animal welfare lobbyists of campaigning against the non-stun religious slaughter of animals to the exclusion of almost all other welfare issues.
They say the repeated calls for ban are not only unnecessary – with such practices accounting for a tiny percentage of animals killed – but also serve to increase hostility to Muslims and Jews among other sections of the population.
Shimon Cohen of Shechita UK, an organisation which campaigns on behalf of the Jewish community for the right to carry out religious slaughter for food said: “Since January 2013 there has been a House of Lords Debate and a Westminster Hall Debate on the subject, with a third debate scheduled for Monday.’’
Mr Cohen pointed out that Shechita, in which the animal’s throat, windpipe and blood vessels are cut, killing it instantly, amounts to less than 1 per cent of all slaughter in the UK.