End 'cruel' religious slaughter, say scientists
Beasts should be stunned before their throats are slit, Jews and Muslims are told
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Independent Minds
ALAMY
Meat Hygiene Service suggested 114 million animals were killed under halal and 2.1 million under kosher methods each year in Britain
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Religious slaughter techniques practised by Jews and Muslims are cruel and should be ended, says a scientific assessment from the Government's animal welfare advisers.
The Farm Animal Welfare Council says that slitting the throats of the animals most commonly used for meat, chickens, without stunning, results in "significant pain and distress". The committee, which includes scientific, agricultural and veterinary experts, is calling for the Government to launch a debate with Muslim and Jewish communities to end the practice.
One Muslim organisation, the Halal Food Authority, already insists on the slaughterhouses it regulates stunning animals first on welfare grounds, as long as they are still alive when their throats are slit. But in other halal and almost all kosher slaughterhouses, animals have their throats slit without prior stunning which would render them insensible to the pain. Religious groups say that doing so would be against their interpretation of religious texts.
They are granted an exemption to the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995, which stipulates that creatures such as cows, goats and chickens be stunned first.
In a report into the slaughter of white meat, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (Fawc) said evidence suggested that chicken and turkeys were likely to be conscious for up to 20 seconds as blood seeped out of them. The animals are killed by a transverse incision across their neck, cutting skin, muscle, trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins and major nerves.
"Such a large cut will inevitably trigger sensory input to pain centres in the brain," the council said. "Our conclusions ... are that such an injury would result in significant pain and distress ... before insensibility supervenes. Fawc is in agreement with the prevailing scientific consensus that slaughter without pre-stunning causes pain and distress. On the basis that this is avoidable and in the interests of welfare, Fawc concludes that all birds should be pre-stunned before slaughter."
While recognising the difficulties of reconciling scientific findings with matters of faith, it urged the Government to "continue to engage with religious communities" to make progress. In a 2003 report on red meat, Fawc called for ministers to repeal the religious groups' legal opt-out.
The Shechita Council, which oversees kosher meat, was contacted but did not supply a comment. Massood Khawaja, president of the Halal Food Authority, insisted that its animals were stunned, unlike those regulated by another group, the Halal Monitoring Committee. "The Koran says use your brain, ponder about things and that's what we are doing," he said. "It's a question of animal welfare."
The Government no longer keeps statistics on religious slaughter, but five years ago, the Meat Hygiene Service suggested 114 million animals were killed under halal and 2.1 million under kosher methods each year in Britain.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it would not change its "long-standing policy of religious tolerance" by ending the opt-out. "And while the Government would prefer to see all animals stunned before slaughter, we will continue to ensure that required standards of animal welfare are effectively monitored and enforced in all slaughterhouses," it said in a statement.
Last year, Lord Rooker , a minister in the department, called for meat slaughtered without stunning to be labelled for the public's benefit, since some cuts were considered unacceptable to eat, and sold back into the food chain.
The Government no longer keeps statistics on religious slaughter, but five years ago the Meat Hygiene Service suggested 114 million were killed under halal and 2.1 million under kosher methods each year.
Last night, the vegetarian organisation Viva!, Tom Lane, said: “How many times does the Government's own advisory committe on animal welfare have to ask for a ban on slaughter without pre-stunning before action is taken? Viva! embraces multiculturlism and all religious faiths, but the suffering of these animals is so extreme that a line has to be drawn somewhere.”
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Comments
Should I bow to your decisions regarding this or that? As long as they do not make me puke,or feel sorry for belonging to the human race, that's fine with me.
not to slaughter any animal in the presence of another animal....to sever quickly at the neck with a SHARP knife to inflict minimum pain...........To now impose upon the great faiths a pseudo interpretation of slaughter methods is an insult to the faiths,but also displaying the vaccilation of modern thinkers, which inter alia also clearly exposing a weakness in thinking
It is understtod that British Airways now only uses halal meat but keeps quiet about it.
the main rule is to make sure that the animal that are gonna be slaughtered feel less pain and also to pray for the animal before the slaughter begin (how many slaughter house that actually pray for the animal before they killem)..
before the world know about the 'stunt gun' it was the most humane way to kill an animal which is to make sure that the airway and the bloodway is completely cutoff in one single fast cut... not shot the animal and let it die from bleeding...
the main problem nowdays is how do YOU introduce 'stuntgun' to a moeslem slaughterhouse... in my country the use of stuntgun on a slaughterhouse is a must.. the moeslem org. here even agreed to it.
because like i said it make the animal feel less pain, which is the main rules for moeslem to slaughter an animal and after the animal was stunt it will be put on the right direction an be prayed for and then will be cut in one single fast cut with a very very sharp blade (meaning: the cows is asleep while being killed).
any moeslem who don't except this fact prolly because they still thinking the old way and must be warn that islam is a religion of the past, present, and the future. and must also follow the progress of the rest of the world......
In Islam, animal cruelty is really something serious. Maybe back in the time of the prophet Mohammed the slaughtering method was the most humane way. But without trying to speak out of line, I don't think he would appose improvements or new discoveries. If it is scientifically proven that stunning the animal before slaughter is more humane, then that should automatically mean it will be more "halal" or permissible under Islamic methods. You could still carryout the religious rights after stunning the animal. But if stunning the animal is cruel, then it is better to keep using the current method... I'm not a vet or a scientist so I don't know.
I have to admit, I watched some videos on how halal meat is prepared in Europe, not sure if they are 100% credible, but the treatment I saw was cruel and un- Islamic. You cannot beat, push, or even allow the animal to witness another being killed before you slaughter it. It was enough to make me weary of eating meat all together when I visit England.