Your report, "Jews and Muslims unite against EU's halal ban", February 19), that under a scheme aimed at curbing animal cruelty, the EU has put forward a plan to ensure that animals facing slaughter have to be electrically stunned beforehand – a practice normally carried out anyway in UK abattoirs unless it is for the production of halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) meat, which generally insists that animals are killed without stunning.

You also say that this proposal has sparked outrage among Jewish and Muslim religious leaders, quoting Rabbi Francis Ron Berry, of the Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation, who says he didn't think it would be right to prevent people from religious minorities from eating meat if they wanted to, and Imam Rashad Azami, of the Bath Islamic Society, who says he is very worried that the ruling can interfere with religious requirements as they are not allowed to eat meat from animals that have been stunned.

Yet, as you say, scientific research clearly demonstrates that slaughter without stunning can cause unnecessary suffering, and the proposal is not about religion but about animal welfare.

Is it obligatory for Jews and Muslims to eat meat? It doesn't seem to be – so since meat-eating isn't necessary from a health viewpoint, wouldn't it be simpler and more reasonable for them just to stop eating it?

E Ingram Woolavington Somerset