End Religious exemption from Animal stunning

NSS calls on government to end religious exemption from animal welfare laws

I have long known that in the UK certain religions are exempt from laws regarding animal welfare.
As we know animals feel pain and it is the law in the UK to stun animals before killing them, sadly not everyone has to obey this law.

While at the National Secular Societies London Conference their delegate pack had a mention of this and how they had attempted to change this great injustice. I was saddened that while there I heard no mention of this, in part I understand they had a lot of other issues to talk about and I have bias towards this one and as a result am disappointed.
I realized that though I am greatly against this form of animal cruelty I did not know of the methods used in these barbaric, bronze age, religious, ceremonies and so have decided to research...

In this article (the same as above) it also mentioned how this meat gets into the general supply, meaning we are also subsidizing their sick practices. A further indignation!


Shechita (Jewish): This practice of producing Kosher meat requires the animal to have first been uninjured before it is killed, as stunning the animal is classed as injuring the animal they have to be fully conscious. So instead their necks must be slit. After being killed the animal is checked for damage internally and if it is the entire animal is either sold into the general meat market or discarded. Other non kosher organs such as the kidneys or the intestine the same happens too.

Halal (Islam): The animals neck is cut, it's spinal chord intact, and left to bleed to death. This is because no blood can be consumed and the animal cannot be stunned as it must listen to the prayers of Allah and receive his blessing. As you can guess if the animal was unconscious it could not hear the prayer - true also if the cut of it's neck were to kill it then it could also not hear the prayer. So it must be conscious while bleeding to death!

In this report from the UK's daily mail:  
"They make pitiful bleating and gurgling sounds as they choke on their own blood."

"the animals can witness each other being killed"
"One lamb cries out for more than 20 seconds before it flops off the end of the conveyor belt"

There is no legal requirement to label meat so you could have already eaten meat from unstunned animals the Daily Mail article says that it is not just Muslims that are consuming halal meat. Supermarkets such as Waitrose, Asda and Tesco, fast food chains including McDonald’s, and even schools, ­hospitals and pubs.