SLAUGHTER
The Dimension of Religion
Being killed at a slaughterhouse, anywhere, will always be a dreadful experience for sheep. The activity of a slaughterhouse will not be seen by the general public. It will only be observed by the slaughterhouse’s operatives, and, when regulations require it, by inspectors, and on CCTV. Those undercover investigations that take place often reveal bad treatment of sheep. A distinct category within overall sheep slaughter is religious slaughter.
The RSPCA says this about religious slaughter in the UK:
‘Current UK law requires animals to be stunned before slaughter, so they don’t feel pain. However, Jewish and Muslim communities aren’t required by law to stun animals before slaughter. All Shechita (Jewish) and some Halal (Muslim) slaughter involves cutting the animal’s throat without stunning them first.’
It speaks about ‘Stunning animals before slaughter’, saying this:
‘Pre-stunning ensures that an animal in unconscious and 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 and up until they lose consciousness (through loss of blood)
Experience delay in loss of consciousness …
Are subjected to unnecessary pain, suffering and distress.’
It explains ‘Why animals need to be pre-stunned’, saying:
‘An animal killed without being stunned will only lose consciousness after prolonged blood loss. This results in a distressing and painful death for the animal
Animals not stunned first need a higher level of restraint than standard slaughter methods.
A large cut made across a neck of awake animals would “result in significant pain and distress”. They would be in this pain until they passed out. It would take around 5 to 7 seconds for sheep … to pass out from the cut.
Slaughter without pre-stunning is cruel and the Government should repeal the current law exemption.’
There is effort to make labelling of halal and kosher meat products compulsory. The Food labelling (Halal and Kosher Meat) Bill has been introduced this year to the UK House of Commons by Conservative MP Esther McVey.
In the UK early this year, Animal welfare campaigner Selina Scott wrote a strong and impassioned article, titled ‘They’ll spare lobsters from boiling pots and ban trail hunting. But … Nowhere in Labour’s new 12,500-word animal welfare paper is there a single mention of barbaric halal slaughter’ (The Mail on Sunday, 11th January 2026).
She said:
‘… it’s hard to imagine that newborn lambs will soon be jumping for joy in the meadows around my … farmhouse. …. In a few months, the farmer who has reared these gentle creatures will herd them into the back of a truck and send them to Northallerton market where many will be sold for religious slaughter, a death barbaric beyond the imagination of those who misguidedly believe this country leads the world in animal welfare.
These lambs will be shackled and hauled by their back legs on to a conveyor belt, and while still bleating, their throats will be cut. They will bleed to death, fully conscious for up to a minute in terror and pain.’
Later on in the article she said this:
‘A public petition calling for all animals to be stunned before slaughter garnered 100,00 signatures and was debated in Parliament last summer, but the issue failed to gather momentum after vested interests objected. Two further petitions are now gathering force, both demanding a clearly labelled method of death on all meat sold.
Scott sees a certain position on the matters coming from the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming, saying, ‘It is instructive that neither the RSPCA nor Compassion in World Farming have added their considerable influence to these causes. Both charities say they are prioritising high standards of welfare on farms, instead.
There is a strong suspicion that they are running scared, fearful that publicly expressed support for a more humane way of killing animals will antagonise and infuriate religious minorities.
I offer no disrespect to religions, but all too often officialdom bends the knee to these levantine customs in our abattoirs, petrified of being called racist and - for politicians - of losing votes. But complicit in this is the food industry, which is reluctant to offer customers clarity on how their meat is killed.’
Sue Reid has written a Special Report article ‘John Cleese has joined a chorus of concern about the cruelty of killing tens of millions of animals a year without stunning them, in accordance with religious beliefs. As ever more of this controversial meat is sold in supermarkets and served in hospitals and schools… Are you eating halal meat without even knowing it?’ (Daily Mail, February 26th 2026).
She begins:
‘A sound system blasts out a hideous recording of howling wolves as a terrified lamb tries to jump a steel barrier to escape a slaughterman who is about to slit its throat in an English abattoir.
Bleating frantically, the animal slips repeatedly on the blood-covered floor before being hauled back for the deed to be done with a large, sharp knife. Two minutes later, even though the creature is still showing signs of life, the man begins to cut off its legs.
A secret video camera planted by an animal rights’ activist reveals the true horrors of what happened inside that abattoir in a Warwickshire village. A report by university academics who viewed the film last year said “intense pain and distress” was inflicted on hundreds of lambs as they were hurled into doors, walls, and floors, before being killed in a terrible way.
The footage also captured a smart limousine owned by one of the workers parked outside the abattoir with the word “halal” incorporated into its personalised number plate. The shocking cruelty to animals at the slaughterhouse producing halal meat for Muslims provoked a police investigation, the sacking of three rogue staff, and the closure of the premises.’
Activist Joey Carbstrong, who made the undercover film, has insisted it was made to highlight animal cruelty, rather than stigmatise Islam ….’
Reid says that actor John Cleese has posted on X ‘Halal slaughter runs contrary to old established British principles about not torturing animals.’
Reid says that ‘the majority of halal slaughterhouses do stun the animals - although critics claim the slaughtermen use a lower voltage than that employed in regular stunning, to ensure the animal is not dead before its throat is cut. She comments: ‘The critics maintain that this means the animals can regain full consciousness after 20 seconds, then struggle and feel pain while they are slaughtered.’
She reports the Food Standards Agency as saying ‘the demand for non-stunned halal meat is rising, and accounts for almost one in three halal sheep - the most popular meat among the Muslim population - dying while conscious and aware of what is going on.’
She says: ‘The halal food industry controls 15 per cent of the total UK meat market, turning over two billion pounds a year at wholesale prices. This has raised concerns that meat from Muslim slaughterhouses is slipping into the general food chain without people knowing.
There are also claims that halal meat is being sold in supermarkets without adequate labelling as to the method of slaughter.’
Reid turns her attention to the Jewish meat market, saying this:
‘… three million animals are killed annually for the Jewish meat market. The religion insists no animal is stunned and uses a slaughter process known as “shechita”. Similar to halal killings, it involves a rapid cut with a razor-sharp blade across the neck of a live animal.’
Then about halal, Reid says:
‘… Britain is an outlier on halal slaughter compared with the rest of Europe. Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Slovenia, Iceland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Greece, Finland, and Switzerland have banned outright all killings without stunning on grounds of animal welfare.’
Reid describes the 2025 parliamentary petition and debate (referenced by Selena Scott, above). Reid reports that after the debate ‘the Labour Government issued a statement saying “We would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter. However, we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.” ‘
It is clear that, for stopping sheep from undergoing extra suffering to that which they always endure when being killed in the slaughterhouse, because of certain religious beliefs and practices on the part of humans, two entities are needed in particular. These are: more public information about shechita and halal, the methods and cruelties of those ways of slaughter of sheep and lambs; clear labelling on sheep and lamb meat products telling what was the sheep’s or lambs’ method of being killed to be that meat.
24th July 2026