Indian restaurants, are Halal slaughtered animals always stunned ?

[boyfriday]

To be fair they are only doing what was done in this country years ago,I remember as a kid watching them cut the throats of pigs without stunning and shooting bolts into cows that didnt stun but killed

 

Well said Glam. I once witnessed the (christian) teenage son of a friend of mine who lives in Spain, slaughter a goat that was going to be on the evening's menu. Shocking though it was, it was a respectful and noble end for the beast and actually reminded me of something I'd long forgotten-that meat doesn't come from cling film wrapped polystyrene tray parcels.

 

I can't stand this mealy mouthed argument about halal meat, I only support prestuning because it's the accepted norm, whether it's humane or not I've no idea, but if I was sufficiently worried about it I'd become a vegetarian.

[Bubble3082]

Thank you BF for your answers. Sorry I have another question! Would schools serving Halal meat therefore prepare pork products in a seperate area? I'm just wondering if its more for the benefit of Muslim pupils or whether Halal meat is cheaper. Please note that I'm neither for or against Halal meat; as I said before I haven't enough knowledge to make an informed opinion, I'm just genuinely interested.

[boyfriday]

Thank you BF for your answers. Sorry I have another question! Would schools serving Halal meat therefore prepare pork products in a seperate area? I'm just wondering if its more for the benefit of Muslim pupils or whether Halal meat is cheaper. Please note that I'm neither for or against Halal meat; as I said before I haven't enough knowledge to make an informed opinion, I'm just genuinely interested.

 

I'm afraid I can't answer your question Bubble3082, I'd only be speculating.

 

However what I would say is that the Muslim kids at my son's school happily trough pork sausages and the non Muslims (including my son) tend to go for the halal option because it's more interesting.

 

Ps: Halal meat is certainly cheaper in the supermarket that I visit and that may well be a factor for schools.

[Bubble3082]

Ok, thanks again. I didn't know that ANY Halal meat was stunned beforehand, so its nice to know a lot actually is. Maybe if more people knew this, they wouldn't think of it as barbaric. Thanks again

[altus]

I've linked to this article before when this topic makes its regular appearance on the forum, but I wonder why people think it's so great that the animal they are eating has been electrocuted before it was killed; that's what we do to people when we want to make life really unpleasant for them;

 

<snip article>

 

From: http://newhumanist.org.uk/2382/there-will-be-blood-by-harold-hillman-septemberoctober-2010

 

It's great that so many people on here appear to care about animal rights, but if you care that much, stop having them killed so that you can eat them.

Whilst I think that more research into whether animals feel pain when stunned electrically would be useful, I'm not sure how valid comparing it to torture is. Torturers don't aim to render their victims insensible to pain as quickly as possible - quite the opposite. Making the comparison is like saying an animal stunned with a blow to the head by a captive bolt gun will feel a similar pain to a man who has a hand smashed by a hammer blow.

 

My own opinion is that everyone should conform to the same animal welfare rules. If the rules don't fit with someone's interpretation of their faith, they always have the option of being vegetarian (I'm not aware of rules in either Judaism or Islam banning vegetarianism).

[Anna Glypta]

Ok, thanks again. I didn't know that ANY Halal meat was stunned beforehand, so its nice to know a lot actually is. Maybe if more people knew this, they wouldn't think of it as barbaric. Thanks again

 

I can't understand why any is allowed to be slaughtered unstunned. If it is acceptable to prestun then the whole lot should be done the same.

I also have a problem with this precentages business. As halal seems to be being sneeked onto menus around the country without anyone knowing it the amount of halal slaughtering is on the rise. So 20% or whatever of an increasing market is an increase in inhumane treatment of animals.

You can't argue with the fact that if halal was only served to folks who have a religeous belief in this type of barbarism, the rest of us could feel happier that thousands of animals were suffering for no reason than the easy way out on menus around the country.

[boyfriday]

I can't understand why any is allowed to be slaughtered unstunned. If it is acceptable to prestun then the whole lot should be done the same.

I also have a problem with this precentages business. As halal seems to be being sneeked onto menus around the country without anyone knowing it the amount of halal slaughtering is on the rise. So 20% or whatever of an increasing market is an increase in inhumane treatment of animals.

You can't argue with the fact that if halal was only served to folks who have a religeous belief in this type of barbarism, the rest of us could feel happier that thousands of animals were suffering for no reason than the easy way out on menus around the country.

 

Actually the % of pre-stunned halal meat is INCREASING. Modern slaughterhouses are huge food processing plants, the halal ones need to sell their produce and in massive quantities.

 

Supermarkets, restaurant chains and public bodies are the largest potential customers..quite simply they wouldn't stock meat that hasn't been pre-stunned.

 

I'm speculating here, but I guess the non stunned halal meat is supplied by smaller, independent abattoirs solely to Muslim customers who demand it or won't eat the pre-stunned stuff.

 

By the way, the Jewish faith don't allow any form of stunning, yet your focus appears to be on Muslims.

[boyfriday]

Ok, thanks again. I didn't know that ANY Halal meat was stunned beforehand, so its nice to know a lot actually is. Maybe if more people knew this, they wouldn't think of it as barbaric. Thanks again

 

I didn't know either until I looked into it following a previous thread on the subject.

 

Sadly there are too many people who prefer to speculate negatively as far as this issue is concerned because it suits their anti Islamic agenda.

 

Pre-stunning certainly wasn't the norm for halal meat a few years ago, but Muslims have responded positively and adjusted slaughter methods in order to comply (and to make their meat acceptable to the wider population and make money).

 

Personally, I believe the stunning issue is a red herring, a bolt crashing through your skull before having your throat slit, or just having your throat slit? I don't think the animal's going to derive any material benefit in the first option.

[Plain Talker]

I can't understand why any is allowed to be slaughtered unstunned. If it is acceptable to prestun then the whole lot should be done the same.

I also have a problem with this precentages business. As halal seems to be being sneeked onto menus around the country without anyone knowing it the amount of halal slaughtering is on the rise. So 20% or whatever of an increasing market is an increase in inhumane treatment of animals.

You can't argue with the fact that if halal was only served to folks who have a religeous belief in this type of barbarism, the rest of us could feel happier that thousands of animals were suffering for no reason than the easy way out on menus around the country.

 

Why are you using the word Barbarism? Is it just to be inflammatory, considering the facts that have been established to the contrary, in this and previous threads about halal?

 

As Boyfriday asked another member, earlier, "Are you vegetarian or vegan?" and if not, how are the animals you eat slaughtered?

 

Are the animals any less slaughtered using the methods in the slaughter houses used by your butcher?

 

Do you consider it to be humane to slaughter in the "western" manner, where terrified, hungry and thirsty animals, raised in cages and pens, are dragged for miles, in crowded trucks, covered in their own (and other animals') filth, to be manhandled and abused by the slaughtermen, watching their herdmates being dispatched as if on a conveyor belt. Or should we use the rules laid down in Halal, where the animal who is to be slaughtered is to be rested, fed and watered, kept in a mnatural environment, treated gently and humanely, taken away from the herd to be slaughtered, and killed professionally, with one slash across the whole of the throat, so that the animal loses consciousness speedily?

 

I know how I would want the meat on my plate to have been treated, and it's certainly not the manner in which conventional UK slaughterhouses do it!

[Kerrangaroo]

Why are you using the word Barbarism? Is it just to be inflammatory, considering the facts that have been established to the contrary, in this and previous threads about halal?

 

As Boyfriday asked another member, earlier, "Are you vegetarian or vegan?" and if not, how are the animals you eat slaughtered?

 

Are the animals any less slaughtered using the methods in the slaughter houses used by your butcher?

 

Do you consider it to be humane to slaughter in the "western" manner, where terrified, hungry and thirsty animals, raised in cages and pens, are dragged for miles, in crowded trucks, covered in their own (and other animals') filth, to be manhandled and abused by the slaughtermen, watching their herdmates being dispatched as if on a conveyor belt. Or should we use the rules laid down in Halal, where the animal who is to be slaughtered is to be rested, fed and watered, kept in a mnatural environment, treated gently and humanely, taken away from the herd to be slaughtered, and killed professionally, with one slash across the whole of the throat, so that the animal loses consciousness speedily?

 

I know how I would want the meat on my plate to have been treated, and it's certainly not the manner in which conventional UK slaughterhouses do it!

 

But you don't know how the animals are treated regardless of the method of dispatch and as BF has said, halal meat is dispatched in the conventional way simply because it is quicker. Reports are that over half the lamb supplied by New Zealand slaughterhouses are stunned but are considered halal.

There is no surefire way of knowing what suffering the animal feels or does not feel so all we can do is suggest that it is very little or that it is that quick that they feel nothing.

 

Your description of treatment fits in well with PETA's way of thinking. There are many anti halal sites with colourful descriptions of throat cutting so which one is right.

Stunning, so much more acceptable buy the majority is equally condemned by vegans.