Meat from lambs that have had their throats cut without first being stunned is to gain an official “quality standard mark”, without customers being told of their painful deaths.
Vets and animal welfare groups have criticised the plans by the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), saying that shoppers should be aware of whether animals were rendered insensible before slaughter.
The board wants to help to promote halal lamb produced to what it says will be high standards of welfare, slaughter and processing. It proposes to help halal producers to attract customers by using one of two “quality assurance” logos, one for meat from pre-stunned lambs and one for what it describes as “traditionally slaughtered” lambs.
However, AHDB said the logos would not state whether lambs had been stunned. Both logos say “halal assured” but the non-stun version displays the word “halal” in Arabic.
The board, which is funded by a statutory levy on the industry and has directors appointed by the government, is planning a campaign to educate consumers about the difference between the logos but without actually explaining it on the packs.
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An AHDB spokeswoman said: “The actual words stun or non-stun will not be used on the product label. This is because at the moment no product, be it halal or non-halal, is labelled in this way. The logos being developed will be accompanied by a campaign to educate consumers on what they represent.” An AHDB consultation document states that a best practice guide will be needed to “minimise welfare compromise” for non-stunned animals. It says this should include “knife optimisation” and “procedures for intervention in the case of an ineffective cut”.
The Muslim community is divided over pre-slaughter stunning, with some halal licensing bodies accepting it and others rejecting it.
However, the belief that stunning is forbidden under Islam appears to be gaining ground, with the number of animals killed while conscious and able to feel pain rising in recent years.
More than 2.4 million sheep and goats had their throats cut without stunning in 2013, the latest recorded year, 60 per cent up on 2011, according to Food Standards Agency surveys.
Toni Shepherd, director of Animal Equality, said labels should clearly state whether the animal had been stunned or not. She said people would assume that the word “assured” meant the animal had been treated humanely. “The labelling is useless if people don’t know what it means. All meat should be labelled with the method of production and slaughter so at least people know what they are buying,” she said.
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Gudrun Ravetz, president of the British Veterinary Association, said: “Our overriding aim on labelling is for products to be clearly labelled as stunned or non-stunned to help consumers make a positive choice for animal welfare.
“It will be important to consider whether these proposals can support the government’s stated position that pre-stunning is always preferable from an animal welfare point of view and this is a question we will raise.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it had no plans to change the regulations, which do not require labels to state whether the animal was stunned or not.