Top European chefs take electric pulse fishing off the menu

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2018

More than 200 top chefs across Europe have pledged to stop sourcing seafood
obtained by electric pulse fishing.

More than 200 top chefs across Europe have pledged to stop sourcing seafood obtained by electric pulse fishing, days before an EU vote that could expand the use of the controversial technique, an ocean advocacy group said Thursday.

"We refuse to work with seafood coming from a fishing method that condemns our future and that of the ocean," said the text written by Christopher Coutanceau, whose restaurant on the Atlantic coast in La Rochelle, western France, has earned two Michelin stars.

The practice involves dragging electrically charged lines just above the seafloor that shock marine life up from low-lying positions into trawling nets.

EU rules allow member states to equip up to five percent of their fleets with electrodes, and the method has been adopted in particular by Dutch vessels fishing for sole.

On Tuesday, the EU is to vote on the practice, which critics say harms too many fish that are left on the seabed, as well as those that are harvested.

"Electric trawlers produce catches of poor quality, fish which underwent stress and are often marked by post-electrocution bruises," according to the text released by Bloom, a French NGO.

"It is impossible to work with such low-quality products."

The signatories included French chefs Helene Darroze, Yannick Alleno and Olivier Roellinger, who has longed worked to improve sustainability in the fishing industry.

Spanish chefs Elena Arzak and Quique Dacosta, Italy's Antonino Cannavacciuolo and Alfonso and Ernesto Iaccarino, and Thomas Buehner and Heinz Winkler of Germany also signed the text.

On Wednesday, several members of the European parliament asked for a delay to next week's vote on electric pulse fishing, in order to allow time for an "informed debate".

For Jerry Percy of the Low-Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), which claims to represent about 80 percent of Britain's independent fishermen, a main problem is the lack of solid data on the long-term consequences of the practice on fishing stocks.

The method is outlawed in many parts of the world, including China, but proponents say it is more environmentally friendly and results in lower fuel usage for boats.

Bloom had already filed in October a case against the Netherlands with the European Commission, accusing the country of illegally authorising its trawlers to use the technique.

No exceptions to cosmetics animal testing ban: top EU court

Yahoo – AFP, September 21, 2016

The European Court of Justice said EU law bars any cosmetic product containing
 ingredients which have been tested on animals, wherever that may occur (AFP
Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU's top court on Wednesday ruled that there can be no exceptions to a ban on animal testing by cosmetics manufacturers in the bloc.

The case arose in Britain after three companies sought to market cosmetics that were developed for sale in China and Japan using animal tests outside the European Union.

The European Court of Justice said EU law bars any cosmetic product containing ingredients which have been tested on animals, wherever that may occur.

"The Court states next that EU law makes no distinction depending on where the animal testing was carried out," the Luxembourg-based ECJ said in a statement.

The law aims to promote the use of alternative methods to meet consumer safety standards and that "objective would be seriously compromised if the prohibitions... could be circumvented by carrying out the animal testing in third countries," it said.

The European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFCI), which brought the case, had argued that the companies did not break the law since the animal testing had been carried out to comply with regulations in third countries.

Russian priests pose with pet cats in hit calendar

Yahoo – AFP, 5 Dec 2015

A selection of images from the a 2016 calendar put together by an Orthodox
news website, showing priests with their pet cats (AFP/Artos Fellowship)

In a rare venture into popular culture, bearded Russian Orthodox priests have posed as models for a glossy 2016 calendar -- cuddling their pet cats.

The calendar put together by an Orthodox news website sees 12 smiling priests in dark robes relaxing with their cats -- sitting side-by-side on the sofa, or having the pet sprawled on their chest or draped round their shoulders.

It is the first calendar to depict priests in such a style, said one of the creators, Ksenia Luchenko, a journalist at the Pravmir website who came up with the idea.

She conceded Russia's powerful Church is not usually open to such an informal depiction of its clerics.

"That's why we did it ourselves. We're not linked to official structures."

Religious-themed calendars usually just depict holy icons.

"It's all their own cats -- nothing was staged," Luchenko said of the casting process for the calendar.

"It was whoever had a cat and was ready to pose for a photo."

Nevertheless the cat-owning priests in the charming black-and-white shots by Anna Galperina turned out to be "nice-looking," she added.

The calendar is not officially endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Senior Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin has said it is "not a great sin" but added: "I wouldn't hang such a calendar on my wall," in comments to Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei radio station.

But it has won praise from media, with the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid writing that the priests are "kind and twinkly, and the cats are cute and fluffy."

The calendar was even covered by Russian Cosmopolitan magazine.

"Not all priests agreed to do it. Not everyone wants that kind of publicity," Luchenko said.

The calendar called "Pop i Kot" or "Priest and Cat" grew out of a photography book project showing Russian priests in their everyday lives, she said.

"By chance we had a photo of a priest with a cat and I thought: why not do a series?"

It was only after the calendar was completed that the team realised they had a Roman Catholic competitor: an unofficial calendar published in Rome every year featuring handsome priests called the Calendario Romano, she said.

The Russian calendar had an initial print run of 1,000 copies but that looks likely to be extended, Luchenko said.

Several churches have ordered them to sell in their shops, she said.

The creators also plan a presentation with some of the priest models later this month, raising funds for an animal shelter.

Hundreds arrested in global crackdown on wildlife contraband

Yahoo – AFP, Jan Hennop, 18 June 2015

Workers put ivory items on a sliding belt before being destroyed in Beijing

on May 29, 2015 (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

The Hague (AFP) - A global crackdown on wildlife trafficking has netted "huge" amounts of whale bones, rhino horn, ivory and other contraband, leading to hundreds of arrests, European and Asian authorities announced Thursday.

Operation Cobra III saw police in 62 countries swoop on suspected wildlife smugglers between mid-March and May, European police agency Europol said in a statement.

The operation, which was "the biggest ever coordinated international law enforcement operation targeting the illegal trade in endangered species" yielded "huge amounts of wildlife contraband," said Europol, which is based in The Hague.

Carved ivory is shown to the media

 before being destroyed in Beijing on 

May 29, 2015 (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

The Association of Southeastern Asian Nations' Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), which helped organise the operation, reported "over 600 seizures of assorted wildlife contraband" and at least 300 arrests.

The suspects included eight alleged smuggling kingpins, including a Chinese national involved in Namibia's biggest rhino horn smuggling case and a notorious elephant poacher in India, ASEAN-WEN said.

In Europe alone, police recovered 11,439 dead and live specimens, including 20 kilos (44 pounds) of live leeches in Bulgaria and 10,000 dead seahorses and 400 tortoises in Britain, Europol said.

Seahorses in particular are prized as aquarium animals, ornaments or used in traditional medicine.

Around 20 million seahorses are estimated to be traded every year for traditional Chinese medicine, according to Endangered Species International.

In Spain, police seized 90 kilos of coral and animal horns and heads and a further 25 kilogrammes of coral were netted in Bulgaria.

In India, nearly 11,000 kilos of suspected tigers' bones were found.

Chinese and German police meanwhile confiscated around 800 cactus plants, while 50 kilogrammes of unworked ivory were found in France and 16 whale ribs were discovered in the Netherlands.

Eight suspected kingpins were arrested

 in the operation, including a Chinese 

national involved in Namibia's biggest

 rhino horn smuggling case (AFP

Photo/Tony Karumba)

Massive ivory haul

In Thailand, police in April netted more than four tonnes of ivory hidden in containers originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and destined for Laos.

Thai police again seized more than three tonnes of ivory a week later in a second haul, this time from Kenya and again destined for Laos.

The 511 pieces of ivory was found in a container "marked as tea leaves transported from Mombasa, Kenya," Thai customs officials said.

The shipping of ivory has been banned since 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the tusks are worth millions of dollars (euros) on the black market.

Elephants and rhinos are mainly poached in Africa and India and their tusks and horn sent to South East Asia.

While tusks are used in a "long tradition of ivory carving", powdered rhino horn is used in traditional Asian medicine.

"Sales generate significant profits for the organised crime groups involved," Europol said.

"Investigations continue in many countries," it added.

Thai customs officers carry confiscated elephant tusks during a press conference at

the Customs Bureau in Bangkok on April 27, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Europol, which supported the operation, said COBRA III was organised by ASEAN-WEN and the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, consisting of seven African countries.

"The trafficking of endangered species remains a problem in the EU and beyond," Europol's director Rob Wainwright said.

"Operation COBRA III once again shows the true global dimension of these crimes," he added.

"We will continue our efforts to fight these cruel crimes, to ensure a safe environment for endangered species in Europe and all over the world."

More than two million migratory birds killed in Cyprus

Yahoo – AFP, 9 Mar 2015

More than two million migratory birds were killed in Cyprus last autumn to feed 

an illicit taste for the delicacy on the Mediterranean island, a conservationist 

group said Monday (AFP Photo/Francois Nascimbeni)

Nicosia (AFP) - More than two million migratory birds were killed in Cyprus last autumn to feed an illicit taste for the delicacy on the Mediterranean island, a conservationist group said Monday.

The survey by Birdlife Cyprus was carried out in the key season between September and October and estimates the number of birds indiscriminately trapped in nets or with limesticks.

The group said its surveillance showed "a dramatic situation of this illegal activity sadly taking place," with the number of mist nets used almost doubling in 2014 from the year before.

It found some 16 kilometres (10 miles) of net supports active during autumn and more than 6,000 limesticks were reported from enforcement agencies and other non-governmental organisations.

Limesticks are twigs covered in a sticky substance that instantly trap birds that alight onto them, leaving them to dangle helplessly.

"With these trapping levels for autumn 2014, BirdLife Cyprus estimated that over two million birds could have been killed across the whole of Cyprus," said Birdlife, the most since it began monitoring the activity 13 years ago.

Such methods are used to catch blackcaps and song thrushes, much sought after delicacies that fetch up to 80 euros ($86) for a dozen at Cypriot restaurants.

The Game and Fauna Service, in charge of the fight against poaching in Cyprus, says the illegal trade is worth about 15 million euros a year.

Birdlife said the figures showed illegal trappings were now "out of control" and that more needed to be done by the authorities in Cyprus, including the British military at bases on the island.

'Out of control'

A clampdown on restaurants was needed to prevent Cyprus revisiting the 1990s when up to 10 million birds were estimated to have been killed.

An estimated 60 species are listed as threatened or in need of protection 

are snared in illegal Cypriot traps (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)

Autumn is the peak season for bird trapping with an estimated 3,000-4,000 poachers involved. The numbers for spring are lower because the birds are less plump.

Birdlife Cyprus chief Clairie Papazoglou said poaching was a "serious, persistent and growing problem" in "what has been the worst year with the highest trapping levels since the start of the monitoring programme in 2002".

Tim Stowe of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds called for zero-tolerance by the British military.

"The report highlights the illegal trapping of songbirds on the British military base has escalated and we are urging the Ministry of Defence... to resolve it before this autumn's migration," said Stowe.

A huge crackdown on trappers and restaurants was enforced before Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but now conservationists say the government lacks the political will to eradicate the trade.

Birdlife has also called for tougher sentencing available to the courts to be enforced while pinpointing a need to change attitudes towards killing and eating migratory birds.

The law provides for penalties of up to three years in jail and fines as high as 17,000 euros but these are rarely imposed.

During winter, millions of birds take refuge in Cyprus from colder northern climates.

An estimated 60 species are listed as threatened or in need of protection are snared in illegal Cypriot traps.

'Field trip' to China a valuable experience for William: Xinhua

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-03-01

Prince William on a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Sept. 14, 2012. (File photo/Xinhua)

The upcoming China visit will be a rare and important "field trip" for Britain's Prince William to experience in person the great Asian civilization and promote bilateral exchanges.

For nearly three decades, no senior member of the British royal family has set foot in China after Queen Elizabeth II's tour in 1986. The Duke of Cambridge's arrival in Beijing on Sunday is expected to make history.

William, second in line to the British throne, will have the opportunity to engage directly with Chinese officials, students, ethnic minorities and people from different social communities to learn about the real conditions of China and how Chinese people feel about his country.

These first-hand experiences will become valuable assets for the prince, who is keen to help promote commercial and cultural exchanges with Beijing, and may also serve other royal family members with fresh knowledge about China.

Against the backdrop of some Western reports that Prince William will go "behind enemy lines" and take issue with Beijing on ivory ban and African elephant protection, the royalty will learn about China's commitment and efforts on protecting wildlife by visiting an elephant sanctuary in southwest China's Yunnan province.

He will be able to conduct direct and in-depth exchange of views with local staff, residents and officials on wildlife protection. Moreover, the Chinese side would like to draw on the royalty's experience and influence on the issue to advance domestic and international efforts on wildlife protection.

Beijing's recent one-year ban on imports of African ivory carvings is a fresh measure on the issue and will provide quantified evaluation of how effective China's policies can help with elephant protection.

Meanwhile, the engagement of Prince William in promoting Britain's industries of culture, creativity and education in China, will also help boost cultural and people-to-people exchanges and friendship between the countries.

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Swedish private jet scandal claims seventh scalp

SCA loses seven executives after revelations that it used corporate planes to fly board members’ relatives to hunting lodge and sporting events

The Guardian, David Crouch in Gothenburg, 11 February 2015

Jan Johansson has stepped down from his role as chief executive
of SCA. Photograph: TT News Agency/Reuters

A corruption scandal in Sweden centred on extravagant corporate perks and private jets has now cost the jobs of seven senior executives.

Jan Johansson, chief executive of SCA, a forestry group and the world’s largest maker of incontinence products, resigned on Tuesday after coming under increasing pressure after reports that wives, children and even pets of board members had traveled on corporate jets. The flights included trips to a company hunting lodge, Formula One races, the World Cup and the Olympics. On one occasion, Svenska Dagbladet reported, a plane had flown empty from Sweden’s far north to pick up a wallet that an executive had forgotten.

The revelations have demonstrated an extravagance at the top of a country that still prides itself on egalitarian values. It has also lifted the lid on a secretive world of corporate perks in a society that has embraced globalisation but is still uncomfortable with ostentatious displays of wealth and privilege. It has sucked in one of the country’s largest investors, two large banks and accountants PwC, while attracting the attention of prosecutors and financial regulators.

Johansson is seen in business circles as a CEO who “lays golden eggs” – SCA reported record profits only last month. He resigned on Tuesday night, saying investigations into the use of corporate jets were diverting his attention from managing the company. He leaves with two years’ salary, worth 22m krona (£1.7m).

SCA’s commercial success appears to have been accompanied by an increasingly extravagant corporate culture at odds with its stated ethics. In 2013 the company said it had “zero tolerance for all forms of corruption and unethical business practices”.

Attention has focused on a hunting lodge built by the company at a cost of 100m krona (£7.7m), according to media estimates, on prime elk-hunting land in a remote and beautiful part of central Sweden. According to business daily Dagens Industri, the lodge was “worth its weight in gold” as a venue for entertaining potential business partners.

But the leader of the trade union for SCA’s employees has viewed it rather differently, comparing management’s behavior to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The company has said is considering selling the hunting lodge.

SCA also announced the resignation of its vice-president, who had come under fire for flying with his wife on a company jet, while chairman Sverker Martin-Löf resigned last month after it emerged that his son had been used as a financial adviser on business deals.

Martin-Löf was also forced to step down from all his other board positions on major Swedish companies, including the chairmanship of Industrivärden, a vast investment house that, together with the Wallenberg family, controls more than half the Stockholm stock exchange.

Industrivärden owns controlling stakes in companies such as Volvo, Ericsson and Handelsbanken, one of Sweden’s biggest banks.

In total, the four big companies implicated in the private jets scandal – SCA, Industrivärden, Handelsbanken and steel firm SSAB – have now lost their chairmen. Three of of the companies have lost their chief executives, although some have been reshuffled, rather than sacked.

The scale of the scandal has raised questions about Sweden’s distinctive model of corporate ownership, with large and active shareholders, and an emphasis on long-term investment rather than short-term share price gains. But cross-holdings between SCA and Industrivärden meant that executives were also signing off on each other’s expenses.

Sweden’s national anti-corruption unit last month began an investigation into SCA’s use of corporate jets. Sweden’s financial supervisory authority is also investigating whether the chief executive of Nordea Bank acted improperly by flying to the SCA hunting lodge. SCA banks with Nordea.

The company’s auditors, PwC, are also facing scrutiny for taking part in the hunting trips. Sweden’s accountancy association said in a statement: “It is very inappropriate that the auditor participates in an elk hunt that the client company organises and hosts.”

The behavior by SCA executives and their associates would be at the limits of corruption law in other countries, said Carl Rosen, head of Sweden’s Shareholder’s Association. He condemned an “unholy alliance” between large shareholders and company executives, insisting that companies should not be free to spend unlimited sums on corporate travel and entertainment. He added: “If the message is that you have to go to a hunting lodge in a corporate jet to do business in Sweden, that’s bad.”

Swedish steel company SSAB, whose executives also traveled on board SCA’s jets, defended the practice of inviting clients on hunting trips. “Our customer hunts are a tradition. I have chosen to continue with them,” CEO Martin Lindqvist told Swedish media this week.

Sweden’s main business daily last month called on the country’s capitalists to think about their legitimacy in the eyes of the wider population. In an editorial, Dagens Industri said: “Royalty that celebrates its privileges in unsuitable company is living dangerously, but a monarch who clearly contributes to the development of society can bridge the gap between a culture of democracy and the right to inherit the throne.”

SCA said it had now changed its policy in regards to relatives using business aviation travel, even when there is no extra cost to the company. It also said that business aviation would no longer be used for corporate hospitality.

Hunt: Fahd bin Sultan is said to

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bustards in just 21 days while

on holiday

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Spain's King Juan Carlos poses in front of a dead elephant

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The Queen's Gold Cup winner Estimate tests positive for morphine

• Buckingham Palace release statement on monarch's filly

• Contaminated feed believed to be reason behind shock news

The Guardian, Tony Paley, Tuesday 22 July 2014

The Queen greets Estimate after her horse's victory in the Gold Cup
at Royal Ascot last year. Photograph: Julian Herbert/Action Images

The racehorse owned by the Queen that won the Ascot Gold Cup last year has tested positive for morphine, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday night.

Estimate, a five-year-old filly trained by Sir Michael Stoute, came second in the same race this year, and is one of five horses understood to have recorded a positive test for the banned substance. The palace said they believed the morphine had come via consumption of a contaminated feed product.

John Warren, the Queen's bloodstock and racing adviser, said: "On Thursday 17 July the British Horseracing Authority [BHA] announced that a number of post-race samples, obtained from recent race meetings, had been found to indicate the presence of morphine, which is a prohibited substance on race days. Five horses, under the care of various trainers, were affected. I can confirm that one of those horses was Estimate, the five-year-old filly trained by Sir Michael Stoute and owned by the Queen. Initial indications are that the positive test resulted from the consumption of a contaminated feed product. Sir Michael is working closely with the feed company involved to discover how the product may have become contaminated prior to delivery to his stables."

Warren added: "As the BHA investigates this matter, including potential links between the different cases, Sir Michael continues to offer his full co-operation. There will be no further comment until the BHA announces its considered findings. … Her Majesty has been informed of the situation."

Feed supplier Dodson & Horrell issued a statement the day after the BHA announcement saying it had been informed by its suppliers of possible contamination in one of its products.

The Queen's victory in the 2013 Gold Cup was hugely popular and marked the first victory in the feature race at the meeting for a reigning British monarch.

It is not the first time the Queen has been connected with a drugs scandal in horse racing. In 2009 Nicky Henderson was fined £40,000 and banned from making entries for three months after Moonlit Path, a horse in his care owned by the Queen, was injected with a banned blood-clotting agent on the day of a race. Charlie Hills, who is based in Lambourn, is the only other trainer to have so far to have confirmed that one of his horses has tested positive in the current morphine case. 

Spain's King Juan Carlos to abdicate

Monarch says he is proud of country's transition to democracy but son Felipe has the maturity to 'open a new era of hope'

theguardian.com, Ashifa Kassam in Madrid, Monday 2 June 2014

After 39 years on the throne, King Juan Carlos of Spain will abdicate in favour of his son Crown Prince Felipe, the king said in a televised address on Monday.

Hours after the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, broke the news, the king explained his decision on Spanish television and radio. He highlighted his pride in the "transformation of Spain" and the "tremendous amount achieved by all" since the country's transition into democracy.

"Today, when I look back, I cannot help but feel pride and gratitude towards all of you," he said.

Felipe and his wife, Letizia.
Photograph: Ignacio Lopez/EPA

The decision to step down, he said, was made after his 76th birthday in January. His son Felipe, he assured Spaniards, "has the maturity, preparation, and sense of responsibility necessary to assume the title of head of state and open a new era of hope which combines the experience and momentum of a new generation."

Once one of the world's most popular monarchs, more recently Juan Carlos has been plagued by a series of scandals that have sent his popularity plummeting. A poll by El Mundo last year found that nearly two-thirds of Spaniards thought the king should abdicate.

In contrast, Prince Felipe, a former Olympic yachtsman, has come out relatively unscathed. Frequently photographed while taking their two daughters to school or at shopping malls, Felipe and his wife Letizia Ortiz - a former television news anchor - have cultivated an image of leading a relatively modes tlifestyle.

Fluent in English, French and Catalan along with Spanish, Felipe studied for a year in Canada before undertaking three years of military training in Spain's army, navy and air force academy. A law degree in Madrid soon followed, as well as a Masters in international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, DC

"His goal, his only goal, is to serve Spain. It has been deeply ingrained in him that he must be the country's main servant," his mother Queen Sofia once said.

Carlos and his wife Princess Sophia of Greece in Athens during
their wedding. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images

The poll showing rising public support for Juan Carlos to abdicate was a stunning reversal for a leader who in 2012, had earned the approval of almost 80% of Spaniards. Taking the throne just two days after the death of Franco in 1975, Juan Carlos won the respect of Spaniards by steering the country from dictatorship to democracy, including foiling a coup attempt in 1981.

But as Spain fell into financial crisis, the king's standing sank. A particularly low point came when it was revealed that he had taken a luxurious trip to Botswana to hunt elephants, just weeks after telling a reporter that he was so distraught about the growing ranks of the unemployed that he was having trouble sleeping.

King Juan Carlos on his €10,000-a-day hunting safari in Botswana, which had
 been hushed up before he fell and broke his hip. Photograph: Target Press/
Barcroft Media

The royal family's image was further tarnished by a long-running corruption investigation into the king's daughter, Princess Cristina, and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin.

Many, particularly young Spaniards, began to see the king as part of Spain's problems, drawing parallels between him and the economic and political powers that had driven the country into the economic crisis. While the king's approval rating dropped steadily, that of his son Felipe remained stable at around 66%, leading many to suggest that the monarchy would be better off if the king abdicated.

In Monday's announcement, Rajoy praised Juan Carlos, calling him a "tireless defender of our interests". He added: "I'm convinced this is the best moment for change."

Spain is now expected to change its constitution to make sure Felipe's first-born daughter Leonor can succeed him.

The royal family has said its wants the change to ensure she is next in line to the throne in the event that Felipe's wife gets pregnant again and gives birth to a boy, who would become monarch under the current constitution.

Analysts say that could open the door to political negotiations for additional proposed constitutional changes, including demands by the leading opposition Socialist Party to grant Catalonia more autonomy or special financial benefits to ease separatist feelings.

Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia, declared that the king's abdication would not derail his plans to hold the vote asking Catalans whether they want to secede from Spain. "We have a date with our future on 9 November," Mas told reporters after the king gave his speech.

Rajoy's government must now pass a law creating a legal mechanism for Felipe's assumption of power, which will then allow Juan Carlos to set a date for his formal abdication.

King Juan Carlos presents his declaration of abdication

 to Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. Photograph: PPE/

SIPA/REX

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Halal row prompts calls for clearer meat labelling

Yahoo – AFP, 8 May 2014

Religious leaders in Britain are calling for the comprehensive labelling of meat

at point of sale, including details of how it was slaughtered (AFP Photo/Pascal Pavani)

London (AFP) - Religious leaders in Britain on Thursday called for all meat to be labelled with details of how it was slaughtered after it emerged halal and kosher meat in supermarkets is often not marked as such.

Representatives of Jewish and Muslim groups said in a letter to the Daily Telegraph that consumers should be informed at the point of sale of precisely how animals have been killed.

The call for comprehensive labelling comes after it emerged that people eating at Pizza Express and other restaurants were eating halal-slaughtered chicken without their knowledge.

"Comprehensive labelling should be supported by faith communities and animal welfare groups alike," said the letter signed by Henry Grunwald, chairman of Shechita UK, the body which represents the Jewish method of religious slaughter, and Dr Shuja Shafi, Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

"It would offer all consumers genuine choice, whether they are motivated by animal welfare, religious observance, or even intolerance of anyone who looks or worships differently to them."

Food labels should specify whether or not an animal has been stunned prior to slaughter "and whether it has endured repeat stuns if the first attempt was ineffective," they added.

"They should also be told the method of slaughter: captive bolt shooting, gassing, electrocution, drowning, trapping, clubbing or any of the other approved methods," the letter said.

More than 70 percent of New Zealand lamb sold in Britain now comes from halal slaughterhouses, although there is currently no requirement for information to be stated on the packaging.

Halal methods are used in order to ensure the meat can be sold to both Muslim and non-Muslim nations, with Middle East countries a major market for New Zealand lamb exports.

"We all follow the rules set down by the European Union (in the British market)," Craig Finch, UK and Europe Regional Manager for Beef and Lamb New Zealand told AFP.

"Currently there is no labelling requirement in terms of halal.

"It's based on commercial and logistical factors -- we take a consistent approach that meets regulations across the board in our different markets around the world."

A sheep is pictured in a field at Sandfly Bay near Dunedin in New Zealand

on September 23, 2011 (AFP Photo/Paul Ellis)

Asked whether clearer labelling should be considered in Britain, Finch said that it was a matter for regulators in different markets and that limits should be placed on labelling because of space constraints.

"It really becomes a regulatory issue. But that information about slaughter methods is already clear on our website," he said.

Finch added that all of the lamb exported to Britain was from sheep that had been 'pre-stunned' and was unconscious before slaughter in accordance with New Zealand law.

Former health secretary Andrew Lansley meanwhile backed calls for shoppers to be given information to help them when making purchases.

Lansley told the House of Commons that the Consumer Rights Bill, which returns to parliament next week, could provide an opportunity to address the issue.

A bill put before the house in 2012 by Conservative MP Philip Davies to introduce a bill for compulsory labelling of halal and kosher meat was rejected by three votes following opposition from Labour.

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Kryon Q&A

Question (2004): Dear Kryon, the Canadian farmers have been hit hard with two cases of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, reported as coming from Alberta. This is a fatal disease that’s scaring many people away from beef. Is Spirit trying to tell us to be vegetarians? Why is this disease coming out now? Will beef ever be as safe to eat as it was before?

Answer: As we’ve discussed before, there isn’t enough fertile land on the planet to feed humanity if you’re all vegetarian. In addition, we’ve told you that a balance is needed for most Human biological systems that includes meat. Therefore, one of the reasons for the existence of animals is for your sustenance, and they come here for that. Animals are in service to humanity, and they do it in several ways. (This has been channelled many times . . . the reasons for animals on the planet.)

We’ve also told you that in order for them to be healthy sustenance, they must be treated with a higher consciousness than they are now or they’ll die. This is what you’re seeing. This disease is one that’s here to draw attention to this issue, not to force you to eat vegetables. It’s to bring the plight of the animals into mainstream consciousness, and to eventually demand changes in the way they’re treated.

Many of you don’t wish to think about these precious creatures being sacrificed for your sustenance, but remember, this is all part of the support for your life on the planet. What you owe them is honor and dignity within the scope of creating food for your lives. When you see these kinds of diseases, they exist to make you stop and look at what you’re doing. If you don’t, these animals will self-destruct on their own.