The European Commission has put forward plans to ensure that �animals facing Shechita are "spared any avoidable pain, distress or suffering, the Sunday Express (UK) reports.
Under the proposals all animals facing Shechita would have to be electrically stunned beforehand.
The move could threaten production of both halal and kosher meat, rules for which often forbid pre-stunning.
The EU plans contain an opt-out for countries wanting to continue to allow so-called religious slaughter, but �animal welfare groups are pressing the Government not to adopt it.
Any move to change the exemption for religious slaughter would prompt an outcry from both the Muslim and Jewish communities.
The RSPCA has asked Environment Secretary Hilary Benn to take the opportunity to ban the practice.
A spokeswoman said: "The RSPCA recognizes that religious practices should be respected, but we consider that scientific research has clearly demonstrated that slaughter of an �animal without stunning can cause unnecessary suffering. This is not about religion, it�s about animal welfare."
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a consultation last month on the best way to implement the EU rules in Britain.
A spokeswoman for the department said: "Ministers are currently minded to allow the exemption to continue, but it is important to have a consultation to hear other views."
Halal meat is a big business in the UK. Last year the Government approved a deal which could allow 5,000 halal butchers from Pakistan to travel to this country to take up work.
Religious interpretations vary, but generally Muslim and Jewish codes insist that animals are killed by a single cut to the throat without stunning.
In a seminar entitled "Why we shun the stun", Shuja Shafi, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain's food standards committee, said religious demands meant animals had to be "alive, healthy and conscious at the time of slaughter".
He insisted that halal slaughter was often less cruel because animals were not stressed in the run-up. He said the stunning process often went wrong.
A scientific study by the Government�s Farm Animal Welfare Council in 2003 found that animals could remain fully conscious for up to two minutes after having their throats cut.
It said all animals should be stunned before slaughter.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=30058
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