Halal meat row as Lancashire council becomes first to ban unstunned meat from all school meals

Lancashire became the first council to ban unstunned halal meat in school dinners.

After a bitter and impassioned debate which ran on for hours on Thursday afternoon, the Conservative-controlled council voted for the ban.

The campaign was fought between council leader Geoff Driver and part of the the local Muslim community.

 In 2012, the council briefly stopped supplying halal meat to local schools over a production issue, but after children boycotted their school dinners, the unstunned meat was reinstated.

In official documents, seen by The Telegraph, the council warned there could be financial implications if it lost school catering contracts due to a boycott, encouraged by the Lancashire Council of Mosques. The council is also fearful of negative local media coverage.

The council leader, Geoff Driver, pushed for the end of non-stunned halal meat in schools. He said: “This is an animal welfare issue, nothing more, nothing less. My concern that animals that are slaughtered without being pre-stunned go through a lot of stress and torment when they’re actually dying.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals advises slaughterhouses stun animals first, to reduce unnecessary suffering. However, the local Muslim community is sceptical about the charity’s guidance.

Abdul Qureshi, acting CEO of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, was advocating children boycott their school lunches if the vote went against him. He told The Telegraph: “[The RSPCA’s guidance] is most of the time based on feelings, it’s not scientifically conclusive.”

The RSPCA hit back at his claims. A spokesperson told The Telegraph: “ I utterly, completely refuse to cede that’s where our views come from. Ourselves, the British Veterinary Association and the Humane Slaughter Association signed a joint statement saying the only humane way to kill an animal is to stun it…”

Mr Qureshi added that he was upset this was being debated, citing it as a “resolved issue”: “[The vote is] problematic, it was a resolved issue,..”