Dialrel: Religious slaughter, improving knowledge and expertise through dialogue and debate on issues of welfare, legislation and socio-economic aspects
Introduction
VI Framework integrated EU funded project FOOD-CT-2004-506508
Dialrel is a VI Framework SSA ( specific supported action) project funded by the European Union. It started in November 2006 and ended in June 2010, project coordinator Dr. Mara Miele, Cardiff University.
The main aim of the project was to address the welfare of animals at time of killing in practices of religious slaughter (e.g. halal slaughter and shechita) and to develop guidelines for best practices by encouraging the dialogue between the scientists working on the project and stakeholders, members of the religious communities, consumers, members of the lay public as well as other interested parties, such as NGOs.
Religious slaughter has always been a controversial and emotive subject, caught between animal welfare considerations, cultural and human rights issues. At present time while the demand for kosher meat is stable there is a burgeoning market for halal meat both in Europe and worldwide. However there is considerable variation in current practices in Europe and the rules regarding religious requirements for halal are still confusing. Therefore the project also aimed to gather an impression of the actual expectations of halal and kosher food consumers and their understanding of the welfare implication of religious slaughter. Therefore, the project collected data on the market share and socio-economic issues related to the development of these supply chains and it explored the level and sources of information available to the general public and to the consumers of these foods relating to slaughter techniques.
This multidisciplinary project, based on a close cooperation between veterinarians, animal scientists, ethicists, sociologists and jurists gathered this information and developed guidelines for best practice by encouraging a constructive dialogue between the interested parties.
All the public reports and factsheets are available for free download at the Dialrel webpage.