<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; line-height: 13.5pt;"><img class=" size-full wp-image-29" src="http://halalnews.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/images_logo%20786_farine%20animal.jpg" width="205" height="159" alt="farine animal" /><br data-mce-bogus="1" /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; line-height: 13.5pt;">"New measures" might be needed to enforce the law properly, she said.</span></p> <div style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-style: solid none none; border-top: 1pt solid #e8e8e8; padding: 5pt 0in 0in; background-color: white; margin-left: -6pt; margin-right: 0in;">&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;"><br /></span></div> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;" data-mce-mark="1">And last month, Tory MP for Shipley Philip Davies launched a bid to change the law to ensure that halal and kosher meat on sale in shops and eateries was labelled as such.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">"My sole reason for introducing the bill is to give consumers more information, so that they can exercise their freedom of choice," the former Asda employee told MPs.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Mr Davies said his objective was to ensure that consumers knew "how the meat has been killed".</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Kosher meat is not processed in the UK from animals stunned prior to slaughter.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">But EU research from 2006 indicated that 75% of cattle, 93% of sheep and 100% of chickens slaughtered in the UK for halal meat were stunned prior to their deaths. Figures produced by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in 2011 give a similar picture: 84%, 81% and 88%, respectively.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Meanwhile, Denmark and New Zealand have both legislated to ensure that all animals killed for halal meat are stunned first.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">So labelling meat as halal will not fully achieve Mr Davies' objective, since consumers will be unaware whether the animal had been stunned or not.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.0001pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Commons canteen</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.0001pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">&nbsp;</span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.0001pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><img class=" alignleft size-full wp-image-57" style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; float: left;" src="http://halalnews.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/images_stunning%20method.jpg" alt="" width="307" height="545" /></span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; line-height: 12pt; background-color: white;">&nbsp;<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: white; line-height: 13.5pt;">MPs were quick to point out flaws in Mr Davies's bill, before voting to consign it to the legislative scrap heap by a majority of just three.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">"If it said that all chickens had to be labelled in a certain way if the birds had been battery hens, or if he had proposed that meat had to be labelled in a certain way if the animals had been kept in dreadful conditions before being killed... I would at least regard him as consistent," Sir Gerald Kaufman said.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">The veteran Labour MP accepted that Mr Davies had not the "tiniest anti-Semitic feeling in him", yet he had come forward with a bill that "picked on two small minorities".</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Concerns about the extent to which non-Muslim consumers are unwittingly eating halal meat were voiced during the recent French presidential campaign by far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, before being taken up by Nicolas Sarkozy, who declared that it was the "issue that most preoccupies the French" as he failed in his bid for re-election.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">These concerns were echoed in the Commons by Mr Davies, who told MPs that "state schools, hospitals, pubs, sports arenas, cafes, markets and hotels [are] serving halal meat to customers without their knowledge".</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Reports have also revealed that halal meat has been served in the House of Commons canteens without labelling.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.0001pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #505050;">'Stricter rules'</span></strong></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.0001pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #505050;">&nbsp;</span></strong></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.0001pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #505050;">&nbsp;</span></strong></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">While committing itself to the principle of providing accurate information to consumers, the government has warned that there are "real practical difficulties in establishing traceability to identity method of slaughter to the point of consumption".</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Finding out exactly how much halal and kosher meat is being sold in the UK is also problematic, since accurate data on the subject is not gathered.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Ms Bray's 25% figure for halal meat appears to be based on a recent article by former president of the British Veterinary Association, Bill Reilly - but he emphasises that some of these animals would have been stunned before slaughter.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">The FSA estimates that less than 1% of all meat produced in the UK is kosher.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Members of the lower house of parliament in the Netherlands agree with Mr Knight's suggestion that slaughter without stunning is "unacceptable".</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">The chamber recently voted in favour of an outright ban, but the legislation was subsequently blocked by the senate after the country's Chief Rabbi, Binyomin Jacobs, reportedly drew a parallel with Nazism.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">"One of the first measures taken during the occupation was the closing of kosher abattoirs," he said.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">Although no changes to the current regime on religious slaughter are mooted in a new EU directive on animal welfare, due to come into force in January 2013, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister James Paice has noted that "member states can impose stricter rules in relation to religious slaughter if they wish".</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">He added: "I am currently considering what might be done to improve welfare in this context."</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 13.5pt; color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; color: #333333;">The UK government plans to consult on how to bring the directive into force later this year, giving an opportunity for both proponents and opponents of the current regime to rekindle the debate.</span></p>