Our meat ‘now halal’

By John Van Klaveren
MOST meat from Geelong’s only abattoir is now halal, according to a union representative.
Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union assistant secretary Paul Conway said MC Herd had joined a majority of Australian slaughterhouses in adopting halal practices.
But many were killing animals without stunning them first, he said.
Mr Conway said stunning could only be used under halal slaughter if it did not cause animals to bleed.
But many abattoirs had stopped stunning because it often drew first blood, rendering the animal non-halal, he said.
“You would be hard pressed to find a place now that didn’t use halal slaughtering,” Mr Conway said.
“The meat is distributed to all the major supermarket chains so they avoid losing customers among the Muslim community but they don’t advertise it.”
Federal MP for the Western Australian seat of Cowan, Luke Simpkins, told parliament last week that Australian consumers were being “deceived” because halal meat was not labelled.
Mr Simpkins called for clear labelling of halal meat.
Mr Conway said the impact of some stunning methods on animals was difficult to judge.
Almost all slaughtermen were now Muslims registered with Islamic Council of Victoria so they could bless the knife and perform the ritual slaughter, he said.
Liberal Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay said he was aware some abattoirs used pre-slaughter stunning and some stunned the animal immediately after cutting the throat.
“My own view is that stunning should be done regardless of what kill it is,” Mr Ramsay said.
“Whatever can be done to reduce pain of the animal should be done.”
Mr Ramsay was worried labelling meat as halal might discriminate against processors “doing right thing”.
“If the public believes that halal processed meat causes more pain to the animal they may not buy it even though the processor has followed all the correct processes.”
RSPCA scientist Melina Tensen said stunning was law.
But some Victorian abbatoirs had approvals to slaughter without “prior” stunning, she said.
“Abattoirs have to go through regular audit processes including their slaughter methods.”
Ms Tensen said the RSPCA believed that halal meat from un-stunned animals should be labelled.