Non-stun Slaughter of Animals

Gurinder Singh Josan Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Gurinder Singh Josan (Smethwick) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I want to speak about some of the aspects already referred to, but I just wanted to say that I am slightly conflicted on this, as I speak as a vegetarian. I am a vegetarian because of my religious beliefs: as a practising, Amritdhari, initiated Sikh, I do not eat any meat, egg, fish or any product that derives from them. It is a bit conflicting, as the prevention of cruelty to any being is a key belief that I hold. My own personal belief is that God is omnipresent and within every being, and, therefore, to hurt any being is to hurt God, and that simply will not do. The other conflict that I have in my mind is that I struggle with the concept of the compassion involved in breeding and rearing animals, but for the sole purpose of killing and eating them. Nevertheless, the vast majority of my constituents do eat meat, and I fully support their right to do so. We also have a thriving agricultural farming industry in this country. We export meat to other countries and we have had trade deals recently that will further improve those opportunities, and others have set out why they are so important.

Essentially, where I think the issue sits concerns our great British values. British people have strong beliefs about the humane treatment of animals. We see that in our postbags and when we go around our constituencies; we see it all the time. British people also have strong beliefs about freedom of choice and respect for other religions. We are an incredibly diverse country and although we have our challenges, I, as a practising Sikh, strongly believe we have probably the best model of integration in the world, and that that is something we should be proud of.

I just wanted to touch on the Sikh aspect of this, partly because some of my constituents have asked me to raise it. I have said where I sit on this, but the Sikhs have the Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code of conduct put together by the central Sikh authorities based at the Golden Temple. That states that eating ritually slaughtered meat is not allowed—that is something that we believe—and that meat, when it is eaten, should be from an animal slaughtered by a single strike that instantly beheads the animal. That is thought to be quick, humane, and the most compassionate way. That process is called jhatka, and I recently met representatives of the Jhatka Council, who would like to explore with the Government how that method of slaughter, perhaps using guillotines, could be accommodated in abattoirs in the UK. If people were struggling with the concept of religions getting involved in meat, there is another thing to struggle with.

Laws are seldom perfect and without fault. Clearly, this area is one where our thinking, science and understanding has evolved over time, and will continue to do so. We may get better at identifying pain thresholds and the methods to use for stunning, but I suspect that we will never know for sure exactly where they sit.

At our very best, we are a country that not only tolerates but respects differences, including religious differences. Statistics show that well over 80% of the meat that is butchered in the UK is stunned prior to slaughter, so we are talking about a minority of the animals slaughtered. It seems to me wholly un-British, and entirely out of keeping with our role in this place, to be talking about things that would adversely affect the religious practices of any of our citizens, particularly when the supposed problem is relatively small. Although it is important to debate such issues, the current situation, in which the vast majority of animals are pre-stunned and we can accommodate the religious requirements of fellow citizens, is an excellent, British solution.