Campaign Direction Shimon Cohen of ShechitaUK participated on Tuesday in a round table discussion at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare to discuss proposals for method of slaughter labelling, against the backdrop of proposals that said labelling say whether or not an animal was stunned before slaughter. Shechita or kosher slaughtering, involves cutting an animal's neck, cutting the blood supply to the brain, without stunning.
Cohen said, "It is neither correct nor sufficient for meat to be labelled as ‘stunned’ or ‘non-stunned’ as it would be dishonest to mislead the consumer into believing that mechanical stunning is some kind of therapeutic, calm, relaxing, medicinal process which gently sends the animal into a woozy state of unconsciousness." He added, "We are encouraged that labelling discussions have now moved on to open, honest and comprehensive method of slaughter labelling which would ensure that consumers know whether their meat has been mechanically stunned by asphyxiation by gas, Low Atmospheric Pressure Stunning (LAPS), electrocution by tongs or electric water-bath or shooting with a captive bolt gun into the brain; or indeed Shechita."