Labour is not the party of animal welfare, just a two tier system based on voter intention
Social media is awash this week with virtue signalling MPs and activists who say they care for animals and are kind people... except if you ask about non stun slaughter, then it's complete silence
Remember how we got here
If you are old enough to remember walking into a typical British supermarket in the mid-1970s and looked at the meat aisle, you were seeing at the end product of a very different world to today. It was an era of rapid intensification, where the goal was cheap food at almost any cost. Animal welfare was often a distant afterthought, hidden behind slaughterhouse walls and factory farm gates.
The defining moment was the Animal Welfare Act 2006. This fundamentally shifted the legal baseline. No longer was it just illegal to be cruel, farmers now had a positive duty of care to meet the needs of their animals.
By 2012, improvements including banning of conventional battery cages and mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses to ensure regulations were followed even when the inspectors weren’t looking. The baseline standard for animals welfare was clear; a life worth living and a death that was rendered painless via effective pre-slaughter stunning.. or so we were lead to believe.
Two tier standards kept quiet for convenience
Despite all these improvements over multiple governments, even some of these latest law changes, beneath the surface of this progress lies an uncomfortable reality, the emergence of yet another two tier system driven by religious exceptions and kept quiet from the public for political convenience.
For some time, UK law has included a specific exemption to mandatory stunning rules to allow for religious slaughter, namely Shechita (for Kosher food) and non-stun Halal (for Muslim communities).
While the intention was to protect religious freedom, the practical effect has been the creation of a de facto two tier animal welfare system that after all of Labours trumpeting of the new legislation and how they care for animals, it still does not address the acceptance of suffering at the point of death depending on who is your god within the United Kingdom;
Tier 1 - The National Standard: Animals must be effectively stunned and rendered unconscious before their throats are cut, so they feel no pain.
Tier 2 - Religious Exemption: Animals have their throats cut while fully conscious, which scientific consensus agrees causes significant pain and distress before unconsciousness supervenes.
It is claimed that circa 80% of Halal meat in the UK is pre-stunned but as per the revelations by Rupert Lowe MP who is a farmer himself, the stun is not up to standard and the animals are not unconscious when their throats are slit.
Voting intention is the driver for silence
It’s simple, Labour are protecting their voter base. Forget all the flag waving and virtual signalling on how wonderful these MPs are because they care for animal welfare, the stark reality is that they only care when it’s politically convenient.
Let me explain…
For 50 years the welfare of animals within the UK has improved beyond recognition, with many Labour and Conservative MPs supporting these changes and rightly so and to be fair that should be applauded. But now these politicians realise that with the change of demographic of voters brought about by the open borders policies adopted by both main parties, this stance is no longer politically convenient for them to continue with. Screw animal welfare, an MPs votes are far more important.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has warned that a ban could force Muslims to leave the UK. Although there are many good Muslim people here, we should not drop our standards of animal welfare for religious convenience.
In many areas of India, cows are sacred. Even possessing beef can lead to heavy fines or imprisonment. If a Christian man like myself migrated to one of these areas, I should not expect the law to be relaxed just for me. I should respect their country, their culture, laws and belief system. If I don’t like it, then I shouldn’t go there.
The government also intends to ban trail hunting entirely to remove the legal defence where dogs accidentally pick up the scent of a real fox, again based on animal welfare grounds. Instead, groups will be encouraged to switch to drag hunting which uses non-animal scents like aniseed and follows a strictly defined path.
So once again, if you are in the hunting fraternity then it’s strict animal welfare laws for you, as you are probably not a Labour voter, but an exemption for those likely to vote for you and that’s all absolutely fine.
What an utter mess but don’t worry, it gets much worse. Meat labelling is a disaster zone where non-stun slaughter products are in our shops and supermarkets unknown to consumers, but thats another issue to be ignored.