Shechita UK has welcomed an European Commission report on attitudes to animal slaughter.

The study, called Information to Consumers on the Stunning of Animals, found that stunning animals before slaughter was “not an important issue” for most consumers, unless it was brought to their attention.

It also found there was “little accurate consumer understanding of the slaughter process”.

There was a low consumer willingness to pay for information on whether animals have been stunned prior to slaughter, the report said.

The UK government had delayed taking a position on whether meat produced by the shechita method should be labelled as such until after the publication of the report.

Shimon Cohen, campaign director of Shechita UK which defends religious slaughter, said the findings reflected the organisation’s stand on a number of key issues.

“Following this report, it is clear that consumers see labelling as a peripheral issue and we will focus on improving best practice in the interest of animal welfare,” he said.

“We hope that animal welfare campaigners will take an equally even-handed approach.”

Henry Grunwald, chairman of Shechita UK, said: “It is a tribute to our work to see comments we have been making year after year featuring in the lines of this report.”