FOLLOWING discussions with friends regarding the media attention on halal meat, we are of the opinion that everyone has a right to know whether the animal has been slaughtered in the accepted humane manner to which we are accustomed, or by the halal ritual slaughter.

Some say the animal is stunned first, and others say it is part of the tradition to cut the animal’s throat without stunning while an Islamic butcher chants a verse, and then the animal is hung to bleed to death.

As a nation, we are very conscious of the welfare of the animals fed into our food chain, from the way they are reared to the way they are slaughtered.

When meat is sold to the public, halal meat should be marked on the label so that people have a choice.

Some 70 years ago when I was a child, farmers were allowed to kill their own animals sometimes, and I witnessed a pig being slaughtered by having its throat cut.

I can still hear the frightened squeals of that animal and hate to think of others, in this day and age of animal welfare, going through the same torture.

Mrs DF Jones, Hopgrove Lane North, York.