Is Halal meat ethical?

lindseykim13

If your eating meat, why does it matter how it's killed? I don't have a preference and will eat any meat. If the animals going to die anyway, i think if i was that concerned on the killing i would go veggie.
I think if people had to kill thier own animals alot more of us would be veggie too.
I however don't have an issue with killing my own meat as horrid as that may sound to some. I'd happily go dear hunting, bird shooting ect. I'd love to have my own chickens too and would do the deed when their time came.
I don't think there is going to be anywhere in this country that is inhumane and beat the animal to death.

I think i'm correct is saying if something is slit across the throat is dies pretty instantly.

flashnazia

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

I could be wrong but I understand it as: Kosher meat means that the animal must have its throat cut and the blood allowed to drain out but animal can be stunned, whereas Halaal meat the animal needs to be conscious when its throat's cut. Kosher has requirements about the animal not being caused unnecessary suffering, Halaal does not. For instance hunted game can only be kosher if there was no other alternative.

You are wrong:

The law in the UK requires that all animals and birds conventionally slaughtered (i.e. not religious slaughter) for human consumption should be “stunned” (i.e. rendered unconscious) before they are actually killed. The conventional way this is done is for large animals (cattle) to be shot in the head by a steel bolt. This bolt penetrates the skull and injures the brain, with the intention of making the animal unconscious and unable to feel pain. Most commonly in abattoirs the animal is then hoisted upside-down by shackling a rear-leg. The throat of the animal is then cut and the animal bleeds out until it is dead. This shot-to-the-head is not intended to kill the animal, only to render it unconscious; death comes from bleeding out – which is the legal definition of “slaughter”.
Smaller animals (i.e. sheep, goats and pigs) are “stunned” by using large electrical calipers which are gripped to the animal’s head passing a voltage through it and giving it an electric shock. The animal’s throat is then cut, or it is stabbed in the thorax, to make it bleed out until it is dead.
Live poultry are shackled upside down first and then receive an electric shock by immersing their heads in a water-trough through which is passed a voltage. After the birds are shocked, their throats are cut, allowing bleed-out. Sometimes birds and pigs are gassed using a carbon dioxide/argon mix to make them unconscious.
A kosher animal/bird must be healthy and uninjured at the time of shechita. All these mechanical methods outlined above are forbidden in Shechita because they cause injuries to the animal/bird before slaughter which makes it treifa (non-Kosher) and forbidden as food to Jews. It must also be definite that the animal has been slaughtered by Shechita alone and its death is not caused by or in conjunction with another method.
The Law in the UK recognises that these “conventional” stunning methods are not permitted for kosher food and legislates for shechita to be exempted from such stunning provided the animal is “shechted” by a duly licensed Shochet.
When the shechita incision is made on the animal’s neck, it severs the major organs, arteries and veins thereby causing a massive and immediate drop in blood-pressure in the brain. The incision takes a second to perform. The abrupt and dramatic collapse on cerebral perfusion so rapidly effected by Shechita means that the animal is rendered unconscious within a couple of seconds. At the moment that blood-flow to the brain is lost all awareness ceases and there can be no recovery from unconsciousness. Thus shechita provides an immediate and irreversible stun and the animal is dispatched painlessly and humanely. (To read!a more detailed physiological analysis click here)

Anouchka

It all depends on what a person is prepared to accept as ethical.

In my opinion Halal meat is not ethical, but then I think a lot of what goes on in non-halal slaughter houses, in Britain as well as abroad, is totally non-ethical as well. This sickening information is freely available and, although I accept everyone is just as entitled to an opinion as I am, I cannot for the life of me understand how people either chose to ignore this aspect of food production or possibly even worse, simply do not care.

If nothing else comes from the lastest food fuss I hope it means that people start to consider what they are eating, where it comes from and the lives these unfortunate animals live in order to allow all this mindless consumption.

In my opinion, no one needs to worry re the ethics of meat production, simply don't eat meat ever again.

Edwardia

I think perhaps chevalgate is making people more aware of the food chain.

However, millions of people in this country have never been near a real live cow, sheep, pig or chicken. Meat and poultry are just dead stuff in a supermarket or an ingredient if they don't cook.

sharnad

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

I personally think it must be awful to bleed to death. Not entirely sure the animals are stunned anyway, I understood that true halal meat cannot be stunned, something to do with not hearing the prayer that is said over it? So as far as I am concerned it is to be avoided.

So you also involve the abattoir killings which are just as bad if not
Worse

sharnad

antenna wrote: »

When In Rome Do As The Romans Do.
I dont want animals bled to death for "foriegn" religious reasons........if you dont like it,then,leave.

So it's okay to do it for British reasons then

Edwardia

As a student I did industrial temping and I was sent to a factory which made frozen chicken products.

Men would remove chickens from the crates they arrived in and hang them up by their feet upside down on a moving cable with hooks. They would be stunned then go into a machine which IIRC scalded the bird and removed the feathers.

Often the bird would struggle so much that it would free itself from the hooks before stunning and fall to the floor. I saw men kicking at the chickens running around in panic, like they were footballs.

If the chicken wasn't stunned I guess it boiled to death in the steam.

I will always remember the stench of chicken poo and those men kicking birds.

They died to become frozen chicken kievs.

So how is kicking a frightened chicken, hanging it up by it's feet and scalding it with or without stunning, more respectful than saying a prayer over it before despatching with a swift sharp knife ?

I've seen extracts from studies that say stunning is better and others that say a knife causes less pain. So I'm undecided upon which is the least painful method for the animal.

But kicking defenceless poultry and animals and having systems which only work if applied correctly every time, doesn't seem respectful or paying due care and attention.

The Bible has food laws too, in the Old Testament Leviticus chapter 11 and Deuteronomy chapter 14. Thousands of years later, Jewish and Muslim people still abide by theirs but Christians don't and haven't for centuries.

antenna, Christianity, Judaism and Islam all come from the Middle East so they are all foreign religions.

Enterprise_1701C

sharnad wrote: »

So you also involve the abattoir killings which are just as bad if not
Worse

In English law animals have to be stunned first, halal meat is not meant to be stunned. That is the difference. And yes, I have been in an abattoir, and I have killed more than one chicken with my own hands (very quickly and efficiently!)

joeyboy

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

In English law animals have to be stunned first, halal meat is not meant to be stunned. That is the difference. And yes, I have been in an abattoir, and I have killed more than one chicken with my own hands (very quickly and efficiently!)

But the Halal Food Authority(HFA), the main body for labelling food Halal in this country, accepts "stunning to stun", just as long as it's not "stun to kill".

Basically afaik Halal meat is stunned in this country, even if some Muslims don't like it. There's an alternative Halal authority which doesn't approve of stunning..can't remember what it's called but it's more niche. I don't know if that's imported meat though, as I was under the impression that the HFA bent over and accepting the stunning because it was our way or the highway when it came to getting meat.

Want2makeitstretchfurther

As a VERY small scale free range meat producer (we have less than 50 meat animals on our farm at any one time) we keep our animals to the highest standards. I am beginning to eat only meat which i have reared and seen killed or killed myself, the journey to the slaughterhouse is a stressful one for animals and waiting to be killed amidst the smell of death is unnatural and disturbing for them, although to meet legal requirements I do send animals which are to be sold to the public as meat to a very local slaughterhouse just a few minutes down the road, meat for our own consumption is killed on the farm either by ourselves in the case of poultry or by a mobile licensed slaughterman for pigs, sheep and cattle, the death is extremely quick and the animal does not suffer, it is in familiar surroundings with familiar people, sights, sounds and smells and has no idea of what is about to happen, he kills with a gun (which is instantaneous) and is very proficient the animal simply stands in the field (a seperate one to other animals) or in the barn and within less than 2 minutes of him first seeing the animal it is dead, due to the small scale and humane rearing process our animals are used to human contact and therefore not at all scared when myself and the slaughterman go to kill them, they will stand quietly and calmly with no stress or distress up til the end, surely this is the best way for animals to end their lives? People will I am sure knock me especially as a woman for doing this, but I believe we owe it to our meat to rear and kill it humanely