29% of sheep and 11% of goats slaughtered in England and Wales are done so without first being stunned, according to new figures released by the Food Standards Authority (FSA), which were taken from their ‘2024 Slaughter Sector Survey’.
The FSA carried out the survey in all slaughterhouses operating in England and Wales during the period, February 12 – 18 2024, on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the Welsh government.
The survey was completed by the official veterinarians based at each of the 199 operating plants (181 in England and 18 in Wales) surveyed, with 149 of them being red meat slaughterhouses and the remaining 50 being poultry slaughterhouses.
The report shows a total of 19,601,594 animals were slaughtered across the stated time period.
While the majority of animals were slaughtered using standard pre-stun methodology – 97% for poultry and 86% for red meat – a considerable proportion were slaughtered by halal and scechita/koshar methods, which do not include pre-stunning prior to the killing of the animal.
These figures represent a 3% increase in the number of red meat animals killed inhumanely in 2024, compared to 2022 (89%), which was when the survey was last conducted and published.
Legislation in the UK demands that all farm animals are to be stunned before they’re slaughtered, in order for the slaughter to be deemed humane and therefore legal.
Stunning ensures animals are unconscious at the time of slaughter, which supposedly reduces the level of pain and suffering endured at the time of death.
However, certain legal exemptions exist on the grounds of religious reasons, such as Halal and Kosher meat for Muslim and Jewish communities respectively, which enable animals to be slaughtered without the prerequisite of stunning.
According to the report, sheep were the animals with the largest proportion of slaughters to be conducted by a non-stun method in 2024 with 28.7% (6% more than in 2022) followed by goats with 11% of the animals being slaughtered by Halal non-stun methods.
94% of calves under 8 months old were stunned prior to slaughter, which is 5% less than in 2022, while the remaining 6% were slaughtered without stunning.
For cattle, 97% were stunned prior to slaughter in 2024 with 82% by captive bolt, 12%
by Jarvis box and the remaining by halal stun methods. Non-stun slaughter accounted for the final 3%, which primarily constituted shechita methods.
Shechita is the procedure of killing or slaughtering animals for food production, according to
Jewish tradition and it is performed without prior stunning, involving the severance of blood vessels in the neck, with a frontal cut across the throat.
Expressing this in annual average figures, 3.1 million sheep, 26 million chickens (2.8% of the total), and 51,000 cattle (2.7% of total) were slaughtered without pre-stunning in 2024, as indicated in the report.
Of the 22 surveyed slaughterhouses involved in non-stun Halal slaughter, 16 indicated that they were certified by a Halal certification body, three stated that they were self-certified while the remaining three did not provide any response and/or responded negatively.
However, not all halal slaughterhouses are exclusively engaged in non-stun tactics, in fact, 51 respondents reportedly deploy halal stun slaughter methods. For Shechita slaughter, all 11 slaughterhouses are certified by at least one certification body.
In a statement published by the RSPCA today, condemning the rise in non-stun slaughters, head of public affairs at the RSPCA, David Bowles, said:
“We are disappointed to see that the numbers of animals slaughtered without pre-stunning has risen since the figures were last reported two years ago.
“This is a real concern as, based on predictions, this means over half a million animals are slaughtered without stunning every single week.
“We have long campaigned to bring an end to non-stun slaughter and would like to see a change in the law which would protect the welfare of millions of farmed animals.
“We acknowledge that religious beliefs and practices should be respected. However, all animals should be treated humanely at the time of killing and therefore be stunned prior to slaughter as not doing so seriously compromises their welfare.”
He also called on the government to ban the export of non-stunned meat from the UK, which his organisation believes, breaches the “tenet” of UK slaughter legislation.
