In response to an enquiry from the Daily Telegraph, Shechita UK issued the following comment outlining it’s position on labelling.
Shimon Cohen, the Campaign Director for Shechita UK said:
“The Jewish community fully supports the notion that consumers have every right to know what they are eating. However, we also feel it is extremely important to distinguish between honest, even-handed labelling and what has been proposed thus far (stunned or non-stunned) which could so easily amount to an inadvertent deception of the consumer and an affront to faith communities. If we want to ensure true consumer information, they should be told the method of slaughter – captive bolt shooting, gassing, electrocution by tongs or water, drowning or any of the other approved methods.
“Labelling just one process inevitably sends a message that one method is somehow inferior to other methods; labelling stunned/ non-stunned will not suffice as the shechita process incorporates an integral stun; stunning, dispatching and exsanguinating the animal in one rapid action, conforming to all relevant EU definitions of stunning and to all norms of animal welfare.”