McCartney attacks animal bill over ritual slaughter

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The Sunday Times - Scotland

May 22, 2005

McCartney attacks animal bill over ritual slaughter
Jason Allardyce
SIR Paul McCartney and Carla Lane, the comedy writer, have criticised the Scottish executive for failing to ban the ritual slaughter of animals.

McCartney who, along with his wife Heather Mills, is a vocal campaigner for animal rights, accused ministers of living in the past by effectively condoning cruelty.

Lane said the executive’s failure to ban halal and kosher methods of butchering animals — where their throats are cut without first being stunned — was motivated by political correctness.

Their comments follow the publication in Scotland this week of the draft Animal Health and Welfare Bill, which aims to raise the minimum age for buying animals from 12 to 16. It will also ban giving creatures as prizes, such as goldfish at fairgrounds, and introduce a duty of care on those keeping animals.

Campaigners, who had hoped the legislation would tackle the issue of ritual slaughter, have been angered by what they see as the executive ducking politically sensitive issues.

“I’m unhappy that the Scottish executive has not banned slaughter without pre-stunning as the government has admitted that it is cruel and causes severe distress,” said McCartney, whose late wife Linda founded her own vegetarian food range.

“I hope that the politicians will reconsider — after all this is supposed to be a bill to protect animals’ welfare and I’m sure we are all aiming for a less cruel world as we move further into a new century.”

Lane, who wrote the successful television sitcoms Bread and Butterflies, said she was “appalled” by the executive’s position. “Scottish politicians must not tolerate ritual killing in the name of political correctness. Ritual slaughter adds more terror and pain to an act which is in itself inhumane. What God would want that?” she said.

Jenny Seagrove, the actress, added: “Religious slaughter belongs to a time of the past and was initiated for hygiene and animal welfare reasons to stop people at that time cutting off animals’ limbs and keeping them alive. However, times have changed and religious slaughter is outdated.”

Jews and Muslims believe that meat is not acceptable to eat unless the animal has been killed under certain conditions. Rabbinical rules for the Jewish method, shechita, require animals to be healthy at the time of slaughter and not to have suffered physical injury. Halal meat for Muslims has similar rules, with the animal killed by a cut to the jugular vein.

The RSPCA claims that calves can remain conscious for up to two minutes as they bleed to death.

The Muslim Council of Britain denied that the practice was cruel. “We believe that the Islamic method of slaughter is a most humane way,” said Dr Shuja Shafi, the chairman of the council’s health and medical committee, and claimed that pre-stunning could subject animals to more distress because it was often not applied properly.

The executive said it planned to carry out a consultation exercise later in the year on the welfare of animals at slaughter and would take the views of critics into consideration. But ministers are not expected to deviate from the position adopted by the UK government which has said halal and kosher methods of killing can continue.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...622737,00.html