Despite the Coop not getting back to me on my previous complaint about the excessive queuing at my local Coop, I decided to complain once again over the weekend because of another issue I had a bone to pick with them, and because I’m getting old and part of that process is writing angry complaint letters to organisations.
It was a subject close to my own heart as it happens – I was trying to buy a curry but most of the curries available where made of Halal meat and therefore off limits to anyone who a) understands how religiously slaughtered meat is produced and b) who has a conscious. As such I, along with Norm have written to the chief executive of Coop suggesting that as a brand which set them up as an ethical choice should remove all religiously slaughtered meat from their shelving due it’s grossly unethical origin.
Mr Marks
I recently went to the Co-op supermarket on New York Street, Leeds to buy something for dinner and decided on a microwavable curry ready meal. However, when I reached the section these are stocked I found that most of the Coop curries had been replaced by those labelled under the Mumtaz brand. As you may be aware, Mumtaz use exclusively Halal meat.
I consider myself an ethical consumer. Indeed one of the reasons I shop at Co-op is because the company has a long history of offering a selection of ethical products and indeed seems to take pride in doing so.
Halal meat (and Kosher meat also), if you are not already aware, is highly unethical as it causes unnecessary suffering to the animal resulting in the Farm Animal Welfare Council, the government’s independent review board on the subject, to conclude it should be banned immediately (such slaughter methods are actually already illegal, but religious organisations currently hold an exemption). Should you wish to read further, more information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal#Animal_welfare
I was therefore shocked, and disappointed, that Co-op had selected to stock Mumtaz’s Halal dishes. I believe that the Coop should continue it’s tradition of providing ethically sourced products by removing any products which contain religiously slaughtered meat. I urge you, as the group chief executive to make enquiries into this distribution policy and act to reverse the decision as soon as possible. Whilst these unethically sourced products remain on your shelves with no clear choice for me as a consumer, then I shall unfortunately not be able to continue my custom with your organisation.
Thank you for your time.
Lets see what they come back to us with.
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Tags: complaint, coop, halal meat
This entry was posted on Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.