In an interview with The Times of London, John Blackwell called for prohibiting kosher and halal slaughter because it causes pain to the animal for “five or six seconds.”
“They will feel the massive injury of the tissues of the neck,” Blackwell, who is the president-elect of the British Veterinary Association, said in the interview. “They will perceive the aspiration of blood. They will breathe in before they lose consciousness.”
Jonathan Arkush, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, responded: 'I really regret John Blackwell's remarks, which are completely misleading. ‘'A large animal has its throat cut and this renders it insensible to pain and unconscious. The Jewish method (known as shechita) is designed to bring that about instantly, and using tendentious language is not helpful. The Jewish religion focuses on the most humane way of bring death. If you eat meat you have to accept that an animal that is live is then killed and the most important thing to do is to do it humanely,’’ he said.
World Jewish Congress (WJC) CEO Robert Singer said in a statement : “As our affiliate the Board of Deputies of British Jews clearly stated, the practice of ritual slaughter is central to the freedom of religion of both Jews and Muslims in the United Kingdom and should not be abridged because of misguided and unscientific appeals to animal rights.”
“Ritual slaughter has been practiced humanely and according to the highest ethical standards of animal welfare for millennia, and attempts to paint it otherwise are just plain wrong. British authorities have consistently supported the religious humane slaughter of animals for food and we trust that they will continue to do so,” he added.
Last week the Danish government was accused of being anti-Semitic after passing a law which banned the religious slaughter of animals for halal and kosher meat.
The change has been described as ‘anti-Semitic and ‘a clear interference in religious freedom’ by a group petitioning against the change.
Under European regulations, animals are required to be stunned before slaughter unless an exemption can be found on religious grounds.