Islamic Slaughtering Judged on humane & Scientific Grounds

DR S. A. Tirmazi

The visiting Card of Our LORD

What is Islamic Slaughtering

Preamble

After World War II, most Governments in Europe decided to ban the ancient religious method of animal slaughter and replaced it with captive bolt stunning, which they thought was more scientific and humane to animals

Islamic slaughtering• The animal has to be lawful to eat, alive, healthy, to be

slaughtered only for the reason of food, in the name of The Creator, ALLAH and not for any other reasons

• It has to be well-fed, not thirsty handled and moved gently and individually

• The act of slaughter starts by pronouncing the name of ALLAH (s.w.t), The Creator , to take His permission and in order to make the Slaughter-man accountable and responsible and to give compassion and mercy to the animal during this act

Islamic slaughtering

• The slaughter should never be done in the presence of other animals and the animal should be made comfortable as it is positioned for the sacrifice. The act of the sacrifice should be done with a sharp object, so as to accelerate the process and reduce the pain suffered by the animal as much as possible

• The slaughter-man must be in possession of a clear mind and not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, trained in the job, with an awareness of what he is doing

The method of Islamic slaughtering

The Method of Islamic Slaughtering!• The animal has to be slaughtered with a sharp

object (knife) and in a fast way so that the pain of slaughter is minimized

• Cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in the neck causing the animal’s death without cutting the spinal cord

• The blood has to be drained completely before the head is removed. The purpose is to drain out most of the blood which would serve as a good culture medium for micro organisms

The Method of Islamic Slaughtering

• The spinal cord must not be cut because the nerve fibres to the heart could be damaged during the process causing cardiac arrest, stagnating the blood in the blood vessels

Advantages of Islamic Slaughtering

Advantages related to hygiene

• Blood is a good media of germs, bacteria, toxins, etc. Therefore the Muslim way of slaughtering is more hygienic as most of the blood containing germs, bacteria, toxins, etc. that are the cause of several diseases are eliminated

• Meat slaughtered by Islamic way remains fresh for a longer time due to deficiency of blood in the meat as compared to other methods of slaughtering

• An amazing result of cooking and consuming halal meat is a healthy meat in which the resulting texture is tender and the meat delicious. Some people say they can “taste the difference

Ref:Yvonne Maffei Yvonne Maffei, M.A., is a culinary educator and the founder and Editor of My Halal Kitchen

Humane and less painful to the Animal

• The swift cutting of vessels of the neck disconnects the flow of blood to the nerve of the brain responsible for pain

• Thus the animal does not feel pain• depriving the brain of its main source of oxygen and

glucose, and with no blood which is necessary to keep the animal alive and functioning and able to deal with any perceptive sensation this leads to anoxia and almost immediate loss of consciousness (anesthetization or “stunning” ).

Humane and less painful to the Animal

• While dying, the animal struggles, writhers, shakes and kicks, not due to pain, but due to the contraction and relaxation of the muscles deficient in blood and due to the flow of blood out of the body

• After this short resting phase, and because the brain is deprived of oxygen and blood due to the huge amount of bleeding, the heartbeats increase in order to increase the flow of blood to the brain and other deprived areas.

• Tonic and clonic involuntary contractions and convulsions start and occur as automatic physiological reflexes in order to send and push blood up, especially to the brain.

Humane and less painful to the Anima

These contractions and convulsions are ‘painless’ (not, as the layman would imagine, that the kicking is due to the pain) especially when the animal is already unconscious and still has an intact spinal cord with safe nerve centers to the limbs, muscles and organs

Lord Horder GCVO, MD, FRCP states• The animal loses consciousness immediately. It is difficult to

conceive a more painless and rapid mode of death; for a few seconds after the cut is made, the animal makes no movement its body is then convulsed, the convulsive movements continue for about a minute and then cease. The interpretation of this fact is clear: the cut is made by a knife so sharp and so skillfully handled that a state of syncope with its associated unconsciousness follows instantaneously upon the severing of the blood pressure.

• The movement of the animal which begins at about 90 seconds are epileptiform in nature and are due to the blood-less state of the brain (cerebral ischemia with complete anoxaemia). Sensation has been abolished at the moment of the initial syncope.’

Others

• DR Leonard Hill (1923)• Sir Lovatt Evans• Professor Harold Burrow• I M Levingen (1979)• Professor F R Bell• Mr. Openshaw• Mr. Hayhurst etc. (Some are quoted, in Impact

Magazine 1985).

Methods of slaughter used today by Non-Muslims.The captive bolt pistol used commonly for cattle,

calves and goats

Methods

• It is the shooting, by a gun or pistol in the forehead (mechanical method) by a blank cartridge or compressed air. It could be penetrating or non-penetrating (percussion stunning)

• It breaks the skull, shatters and destroys the brain. A rod of steel is introduced in the skull hole to smash, cut and destroy the brain [pithing:now to be prohibited in UK and Europe by January 2001].

Methods

• All this occurs before the real slaughtering cut is made. Recently, a new method by which a steel needle to penetrate the skull and brain and in which air is injected to cause interacranial pressure has been developed.

USA

• Some 30 to 40 percent of American cattle are stunned by pneumatic guns, which fire a metal bolt into a cow's brain followed by a pulverizing burst of 150 pounds of air pressure.

• The method is popular at larger U.S. meat plants because it renders cattle insensible longer than other techniques, erasing concerns the animals might revive before they are killed and cause havoc in a long processing line. Pneumatic guns are not used widely abroad.

Disadvantages• Improper stunning (failure of stunning leading to re-stunning

and double shots (FAWC 1982 and 1984);• Paralysis of the animal while still conscious (FAWC 1982 and

1984);• ‘Depressed skull fracture’ and considerable damage to the

brain (FAWC 1984);• Brain contamination (Blackmore 1979);• Blood splash (extranvasation of blood from vessels Into

muscle and meat with some clotting of the blood) (Blackmore 1979);

• Brain hemorrhage (Blackmore 1979);

Disadvantages

• Bruising and injuries from the heavy fall of the animal after the shot;

• Death reported by Lawton (1971); Temple Grandin (1980) stated that tests on sheep and calves indicated that penetrating captive bolt stunning actually kills the animal;

• Damage or harm to the meat. Marple (1977) stated ‘Captive bolts should be discontinued in view of theirdetrimental effect on meat quality. (Quoted by Biala 1983)

Evidence…?

• WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A stun gun used on cattle before slaughter can send brain tissue scattering throughout the animal, which could provide a route for madcow disease to spread to humans, a consumer group said Thursday

• ``These new discoveries mean that some of the steaks and hamburgers Amercans eat today may contain small bits of brain matter,'' said David Schardt, nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is done by moving the animal through a room which contains a mixture of CO2 and air (about 65/70% CO2 by volume). It is used only for pigs. It is a form of chemical strangulation. CO2 is a harmful gas to be inside the body.

CO2• Considerable, unacceptable stress (violent excitation, general

agitation and convulsions)• ‘CO2 stunning is more stressful than either properly applied

electrical or captive bolt stunning’ (Temple Grandin 1980).• Suffocation, strangulation and death to the animal before the

cut; death was reported by Glen (1971).• Toxic effect of the gas on the blood and physiology.• It is definitely a cruel way for the animal and I would like to

quote here also from FAWC (1984) when they discussed pain; ‘It is doubtful whether the animal feels pain or is even conscious’. This method has been banned in Holland and many other European countries

Electrical Stunning

Low Voltage Electrical Stunning by a pair of scissors-like tongs with circular or rectangular electrodes which are usually immersed in a saline solution then applied to the side of the head. Voltage is not less than 75 volts (50 Hz mains frequency) for not less than seven seconds.

Disadvantages

• It is cruel, by giving an electric shock directly, with no anesthesia;

• paralysis while the animal is conscious (pain);• doubt about the effect and feeling of pain;• unreliable: missed shots and re-stunning;• Recovery of the animal usually occurs within 30-40

seconds. Electric stunning only induces paralysis, not unconsciousness, leaving the animal helpless but completely conscious to pain. (E.H. Callow from his book ‘Food Hygiene)

Dr V K Modi HOD of meat technology at the Central Food Technology Research Institute

Mysore

Halal method is effective in draining out most of the blood from a slaughtered animal, which is vital if its meat is to be soft"In jhatka, chances of blood clotting are higher. This could spoil the meat if it's kept uncooked for a few days. It could also make the meat tougher to chew." "Halal is considered healthier because after slaughter, blood is drained from the animal's arteries, ejecting most toxins because the heart continues to pump for a few seconds after slaughter. In jhatka, not all the blood is drained, leaving the meat tougher and drier."

The Last StrawA German experiment !

Experimental Details:

• Several electrodes were surgically implanted at various points of the skull of all animals, touching the surface of the brain

• The animals were allowed to recover for several weeks.

• Some animals were slaughtered by making a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck cutting the jugular veins and carotid Arteries of both sides; as also the trachea and esophagus Halal Method

Experimental Details:

• Some animals were stunned using a captive bolt pistol humane slaughter by the western method.

• During the experiment, EEG and ECG were recorded on all animals to record the condition of the brain and heart during the course of slaughter and stunning.

Results and Discussion:Islamic Method

• The first three seconds from the time of Islamic slaughter as recorded on the EEG did not show any change from the graph before slaughter, thus indicating that the animal did not feel any pain during or immediately after the incision.

• For the following 3 seconds, the EEG recorded a condition of deep sleep - unconsciousness. This is due to a large quantity of blood gushing out from the body.

Results and Discussion:Islamic Method

• After the above mentioned 6 seconds, the EEG recorded zero level, showing no feeling of pain at all.

• As the brain message (EEG) dropped to zero level, the heart was still pounding and the body convulsing vigorously (a reflex action of the spinal cord) driving maximum blood from the body: resulting in hygienic meat for the consumer.

Western method by Stunning

• The animals were apparently unconscious soon after stunning.

• EEG showed severe pain immediately after stunning.• The hearts of the animal stunned by C.B.P. stopped

beating earlier as compared to those of the animals slaughtered according to the Halal method resulting in the retention of more blood inthe meat. This in turn is unhygienic for the consumer.

• (Many thanks to Muslim Students Organization - University of Miami)

The study was accepted…• In 1978, a study incorporating EEG (electroencephalograph)

with electrodes surgically implanted on the skull of 17 sheep and 15 calves, and conducted by Wilhelm Schulze et al. at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany concluded that "the slaughter in the form of a ritual cut is, if carried out properly, painless in sheep and calves according to EEG recordings and the missing defensive actions" (of the animals) and that "For sheep, there were in part severe reactions both in bloodletting cut and the pain stimuli" when captive bolt stunning(CBS) was used. This study is cited by the German Constitutional Court in its permitting of 'Dhabiha slaughtering'.

And more….• in April 2008,the French Ministry of Food, Agriculture and

Fishing has published ASIDCOM’s Bibliographical Report on Religious Slaughter and the Welfare of Animals, as a contribution within the framework of a meeting on animals and society organized in 2008. This report quotes scientific papers and French veterinary PhD which support the equality or even possible superiority of religious slaughter to other methods of slaughter.

• This report quotes in particular the Ph.D work of Dr Pouillaude which concludes by:"religious slaughter would thus be a less stressing mode of slaughter

Economical considerations

• Halal, a $2.1 trillion industry is growing at the rate of $500 million annually. "By 2015, Muslims will account for 25 per cent of the global population. Even in a country like France, there are over eight million Muslims, who love meat. Their needs cannot be ignored.“

• In USA The rising acceptance of halal meat due to its scientific and hygienic slaughtering and processing methods is spicing up the US 600 billion global halal meat market impressively

Conclusion

Islamic method of slaughtering is Hygienic and Humane and should be practiced by all