Christian schools are serving pupils halal meat from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter.
The schools could be serving the meat to any pupil, not just to Muslims, and may be failing to inform parents of what they are doing, according to Geoff Driver, the Conservative leader of Lancashire county council.
He said that the council should ban meat from non-stunned animals and described cutting an animal’s throat without first making it insensible to pain as abhorrent. His proposal will be put to the council on October 26.
Twenty-seven schools with a total of 12,000 pupils in Lancashire serve meat from halal suppliers that do not stun animals under a contract with the council. These include several Church of England and Catholic schools.
Many Muslims accept that meat from stunned animals can be deemed halal but the Lancashire Council of Mosques (LCM) opposes stunning and insists that schools with Muslim pupils serve non-stunned meat.
Muslims and Jews have an exemption from the legal requirement to stun animals before slaughter.
Abdul Qureshi, the LCM chairman, has accused Mr Driver of engaging in a “crusade” on the issue and said that Muslims would boycott school meals if the council voted to ban non-stunned meat. “It will create a huge agitation in society and we are already fighting against Islamophobia,” he said.
He added that Catholic and Church of England schools that served non-stunned halal meat had “many, many Muslims now. Some of them are 50 per cent Muslim, some may be even more.”
Mr Driver said that schools should obtain the consent of parents before serving non-stunned halal to non-Muslim pupils. “My suspicion is that some schools are simply just buying all halal meat because it’s the easiest thing to do,” he said, adding that several parents had contacted him in recent days because they feared their children were eating non-stunned halal meat.
“They are asking, ‘My child goes to school where there are a lot of Muslims. Is my child eating meat from animals that weren’t stunned?’ I am afraid the answer may be yes.”
Lancashire county council said all the meat served in 11 of the 27 schools was non-stunned halal but the schools also offered vegetarian food. The other 16 requested “a daily alternative menu”, which could be fish, in addition to non-stunned meat.
The council declined to name the schools and said it was up to them to decide what meat they served and what to tell parents about it.
The LCM named several Anglican and Catholic schools which it said served non-stunned meat. The schools did not respond when asked by The Times if they served non-stunned meat and whether they served it to non-Muslim pupils. One headmaster said he did not know, because the decision would be made by kitchen staff.
The British Veterinary Association said that non-stun slaughter should be banned because it had “significant impact on the welfare of millions of animals”.