Is halal always humane? Slaughterhouse rules by FARAZ TALAT
Several weeks ago,
a video surfaced on the internet, documenting outrageous animal abuse at a ‘halal’ slaughterhouse in North Yorkshire, England. A single viewing of the video is enough to make the most compulsive meat-eater drop the steak knife, and re-examine what ‘halal’ means to us.
....For those of us who have grown up watching animals bleating and thrashing their legs as they are slaughtered in the front porches of our homes, the video may be only a degree and-a-half above our threshold of tolerance.
It depicts workers angrily throwing and kicking sheep across the abattoir floor, sometimes even cheering as they slit the animals’ throats (often in multiple attempts).
In the United Kingdom, a country where up to 88 per cent of the animals are 'stunned' before being slaughtered, the uproar was ground-shaking. Practicing Muslims around the world, especially in non-Islamic countries, take great pains to ensure that the food they’re consuming is halal.
I’ve met conservative Muslim friends in Europe denying themselves ketchup, and altogether avoiding restaurants where non-halal food is served, for fear of it being prepared in the same cookware as pork. Similar care is taken by people of the Jewish faith. Such are the similarities between the religious demands of each group that less discerning Muslims in Western states have a rule of thumb that ‘kosher’ food is permissible for them to eat, as ‘halal’ food is permissible for Jewish people.
Regrettably, when we say ‘halal’, we focus solely on the method of slaughter – the correct ritual of zibah by the Muslims, and schechita by the Jews. The preoccupation with the ritual leaves little attention to be paid to the environmental and ethical costs of our demands.
Moderate Muslims generally agree that humane production is an integral part of what makes meat ‘halal’. Theoretically, the animal must be killed as swiftly and painlessly as possible, as long as the blood loss isn’t arrested.
In contrast to that ideal, The Telegraph reported a sharp rise in animal slaughter without pre-stunning in the UK, allegedly due to stronger campaigning by Muslims for traditional slaughter practices.
Meanwhile, the Danish government put its foot down, and revoked the religious exemption to the law requiring animals to be stunned before slaughter. Fighting the dual charge of
anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the minister for food and agriculture, Dan Jørgensen, unapologetically stated that “animal rights come before religion”.
....................
well that is enough and there is more at the link so read it there..
well here in this halal meat ....
anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,.... gets together to fight against those who support the idea of slaughter houses after stunning the animal. I am not sure which is a better way to kill animal for its meat but I would consider the one which gives most painless death to animal as the BEST HALAL meat...
Topic: Is halal always humane? Slaughterhouse rules