Is Halal meat ethical?

sillybilly2011

Why should we be eating meat anyway?

I do not see the difference with killing my pet cat and eating it than eating meat from a local store.

I have gave up meat a few years ago when i actually sat down and thought about how cruel it is.

It is so hard to avoid though, animal testing for drugs, leather clothes and sofas etc

It is just everywhere!!

Edwardia

Animal by-products WILL be everywhere, because the majority of people eat meat and therefore there are hides and bones and so forth going spare.

I have noticed that a couple of organic as halal as they can get being organic (ie not very) places sell the sheepskins as rugs which recycles them.

Also, polyester and plastic vinyl pleather sofas aren't environmentally friendly. Leather, wool, silk, silk or cotton velvet for example will all rot eventually, polyester and plastic won't.

So if you're buying plastic or synthetic fibres thinking you are being green and not wasting natural resources or killing animals, you're contributing to the garbage load on the planet.

terra_ferma

Want2makeitstretchfurther wrote: »

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

halal/kosher v. western methods is a false debate, it actually distracts people from the real issue, of how we treat animals in our farms, in life and in death, which you have described really well.

Gloomendoom

Edwardia wrote: »

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.

The New Testament is the Christian part of the Bible. Are there any food rules in that?

Christians believe that the New Testament was, in effect, a new contract between God and Mankind. Like many new contracts, some of the old stuff makes it through to the new T&Cs and some doesn't. Food restrictions didn't. Christians don't abide by the restrictions in the Old Testament because they don't apply to them and never have. It's the same with circumcision.

Enterprise_1701C

We eat meat because we were designed to do so, that is where we traditionally get a lot of our nutrition from.

Like it or not we are among the top of the food chain. Maybe in a few hundred years eating meat will be seen as quaint but then the new forms of food will cover all the nutrition required by a human being.

When in Rome do as the Romans do. If you live in this land do not expect us to make allowances for your supposed dietry requirements.

I learned to kill chickens when I was young, I have seen what goes on in a slaughterhouse. I have also seen the inside of a henhouse after a fox has had its fun in it.

I personally think there should be one recognised halal slaghterhouse in this country, that should be enough for the approximately 5% of the population who claim to be muslim That meat should be isolated and clearly marked to allow people to avoid buying it, same way muslim people want to avoid buying non-halal meat. Any halal meat imported should also be clearly marked as so.

The strange thing is that muslims are so worried about sticking to this troublesome side of their religion yet ignore other parts.

I guess all religions are pick-and-mix these days.

Edwardia

Gloomendoom wrote: »

The New Testament is the Christian part of the Bible. Are there any food rules in that?

Christians believe that the New Testament was, in effect, a new contract between God and Mankind. Like many new contracts, some of the old stuff makes it through to the new T&Cs and some doesn't. Food restrictions didn't. Christians don't abide by the restrictions in the Old Testament because they don't apply to them and never have. It's the same with circumcision.

So if that's really the case that Christians only have to take notice of the New Testament why have The Bible with both in ? And the New Testament in the UK is the King James version generally so again that's not the original New Testament either.

Gloomendoom

Edwardia wrote: »

So if that's really the case that Christians only have to take notice of the New Testament why have The Bible with both in ? And the New Testament in the UK is the King James version generally so again that's not the original New Testament either.

I don't believe I actually said that.

If you do some research of your own you will find plenty of information on how the Old Testament relates to Christianity and also why there are no foods forbidden to Christians.

joeyboy

Edwardia wrote: »

So if that's really the case that Christians only have to take notice of the New Testament why have The Bible with both in ? .

The idea is the coming of Christ made the laws circa Leviticus obselite with statements such as..

“there is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him” (Mark 7:15)

Paul also talks a lot about how no food is forbidden and basically scraps the old testament food laws, albeit a lot of this reasoning is to appease the gentiles and the fact Christians were buying meat from them, so sticking to the food laws was difficult. I mean if you had to melt down an oven every time pork was cooked in it (as Leviticus would command)...you'd run up quite a bill.

Of course you get conflicting viewpoints, but that's the bible for you.
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10)

As long as it's all or nothing I'm fine. Christians who cherry pick what to believe may as well create a faith called "(insert name here)ism". You get people who quote Leviticus to prove homosexuality is a sin. Yet...if I offer them a knife or hammer and point out a sexually active homosexual, they appear hesitant to kill them? Quite bemusing. Then you enquire about what they're wearing, they say a poly cotton shirt. I offer to take it and burn it for them, and they look at me in confusion? It's fascinating really.

But anyway, as said, although this debate on slaughter has its merits, I think a bigger issue people avoid is the welfare of intensively reared animals in this country. The last minutes of their life are worth looking at, but the rest of it, where really the suffering is greater, seems to be swept under the carpet most of the time.

Devon_Sailor

blizeH wrote: »

I always try to eat free range/organic meat where possible, and the horse meat 'scandal' has prompted me to re-think what I eat (purely because it's shocking how poorly the meat industry is regulated, and I find it utterly depressing how the media could not give a f**k about how humanely animals are treated, yet cause a massive fuss over this) and I want to ensure what I eat is as ethically sourced as possible.
QUOTE]

To be honest, if you are buying organic and local produce, then you haven't got anything to worry about. The horse "scandal" is confined primarily to the cheap/frozen end of the market, where suppliers have outsourced to poorly regulated European contractors.

The UK has some of the highest animal welfare and production standards in the world, bar none. Buy British (look for the Red Tractor or UK assurance marks), and you won't find horse. Simple.

Halal is terribly inhumane...to slit something's throat and then let it bleed to death slowly and in agony....well, that too seems a very simple answer to your question.

Regards,

D_S

zaxdog

We buy our meat from a local small farm who uses a slaughterhouse near us which is definitely not hal'al as I think it is cruel. It is more expensive so we simply eat less meat and supplement it with game which a qualified gamekeeper shoots and fish which my OH catches. It's not hard to do and I think it is our duty if we eat meat to do so as ethically as possible