EAST OF ENGLAND FAITHS LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

Resolution agreed at meeting of 4 June 2003

Preamble
A forthcoming report from the Farm Animal Welfare Council to the Government includes around 60 recommendations for changes in legislation relating to farm animals.

There has been widespread concern among members of the Muslim and Jewish communities at one of these proposals. This proposal would require all animals to be stunned before slaughter. Both faiths require animals to be in good health when they are slaughtered, and this is not compatible with their having been rendered unconscious, or possibly killed, by stunning.

Resolution
Recognising that there is a wide range of attitudes to food among people of faith and that some people's faith leads them to refrain from eating meat, while others' faith will lead them to be sympathetic to the new proposals, the East of England Faiths Leadership Conference:

1) Notes the concern caused both to members of the Moslem and the Jewish communities by the proposal from the Farm Animal Welfare Council; and

2) Urges European, National and Regional government to consider the concerns of, and the consequences for, major faiths when formulating policy.