Ritual religious slaughter in the UK

I am writing to wholeheartedly endorse the letter in the Veterinary Record (September 23, 2017, vol 181, p 325) regarding ritual religious slaughter labelling. As slaughter without pre-stunning is no longer done in Sweden, Denmark and Germany, I wonder why the UK government feels it should be allowed here. The UK government blocked a motion to stop slaughter without pre-stunning in the European Parliament not long ago. To me, it appears that they fear offending Muslim and Jewish communities, but as this letter points out, that should not be the case. It would help if Muslim and Jewish veterinary surgeons were outspoken in supporting pre-stunning We as a profession should be doing all we can to campaign for an end to the practice, and I agree with the authors that labelling of meat from animals that have been ritually slaughtered does not go far enough. It seems slightly ironic...
Source: Veterinary Record - Category: Veterinary Research Authors: Tags: Letters & amp; Notices Source Type: research