A TASK group is being set to examine whether animals are stunned before meat products enter the county council’s kitchens.

Former county council Tory leader Coun Geoff Driver had called for a method of stunning which would be acceptable to the Lancashire Council of Mosques and the Halal Monitoring Committee.

“This is about one issue and one issue alone — animal cruelty,” said Coun Driver, who said that “80 per cent” of halal meat was prepared in this way.

But Coun Jennifer Mein, the authority’s new Labour leader, proposed an amendment to Coun Driver’s motion, asking for the issue to be referred to Lancashire’s scrutiny committee where a task group could examine the implications properly.