THE MYTH OF ANIMAL “CRUELTY” IN RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER  ?

 
The assertions made by Mr  John Blackwell, president-elect of the British Veterinary Association, That Religious slaughter is “painful and cruel” to the animal(In the Times/Independent/Daily Mail  newspapers on 6th March), can not be allowed to go unanswered.

First: there is no single proper scientific evidence in the world which prooved that the proper divine Islamic method of animal slaughter(Dhabh) when done properly  causes any pain or suffering to the animal at time of slaughter.

Similarly, there is no single scientific study in the world which proved that stunning surely causes no pain to the animal ?
On the contrary,there are scientific medical studies which prooved that stunning causes pain and suffering to the animal:
(Please see the famous study carried out by Professor Wilhelm Schulze  and his colleague Dr Hazim at the School of Veterinary Medicine,Hanover University in Germany/12/7/02).
The study titled: Attempts to Objectify Pain and Consciousness in Conventional(Captive bolt pistol stunning) and Ritual (Halal/knife) Methods of slaughtering Sheep and Calves ;
This study has prooved evidences of pain and suffering through the repeated EEG records and testing on the brain when the animal is stunned.
On the contrary,there was no evidence at all that the direct Islamic method of animal slaughter has caused any pain or suffering to the unstunned animal .
We should not go far:It is a common sense that if any electricity is applied to the human body of any one of us   will  cause pain and suffering and sometimes death…However unfortunately our stunned animals can not talk or complaint or protest!
Second: The Farm Animal Welfare Council seems to contradict itself  before when it has mentioned in its Report in 2003:
“IT IS DIFFICULT TO MEASURE PAIN AND DISTRESS DURING THE SLAUGHTER PROCESS IN AN OBJECTIVE SCIENTIFIC MANNER….”
(Report on the Welfare of Farmed Animals at Slaughter or Killing:Part 1:Red Meat Animals/clause 194)
So where is the Scientific evidence for the claimed pain in Religious Slaughter?

One important scientific fact:

A little  medical knowledge on the anatomy and physiology of the blood vessels in the neck of the animal, the blood supply to the brain(glucose and oxygen),blood pressure   and the pain sensation in the brain  , will show clearly that the proper cut causes sudden huge HAEMORRHAGIC SHOCK: instantaneous “ANAESTHESIA”.. or instantaneous “STUNNING” and irreversible death of the animal  and the direct cut is 100% “PAINLESS”  as the Merciful Creator Has  created and designed  !
Third:Stunning has been found to cause many new forbidden outcomes ,apart from the pain and cruelty to the animals,to Muslims and Jews :
Death of some animals before the slaughter(according to FAWC in 1980:”ONE THIRD OF THE BIRDS ARE KILLED IN THE STUNNER”)

Latest figures showed that 41 % of poultry stunned DIE before doing the cut?
The meat of the animal who died before slaughter is forbidden to eat,and is bad for our health.
Stunning has been found to weaken the heart or stop it and cause  also the rupture of the small blood vessels inside the meat:”Salt and Pepper Haemorrhage”,thus causing less bleeding out and more blood  staying inside the meat/carcass.
Blood is forbidden to consume,even a drop,in both Islam and Judaism and Christianity.
Blood, medically today , is a major health hazard  for many diseases and infections,if consumed even in small amount.

The Captive Bolt pistol used for cows have been found to spread BSE/Mad Cow disease?

This is why many States in the US has stopped it..(Not yet in the UK?)
Etc…..
Fourth:We Muslims and Jews,have been ordered to slaughter our animals,according to our  holy Scriptures which  are all  well explained and  were implemented too  exactly  ,by the same method, by all the prophets of GOD(Abraham,Moses,Jesus and Muhammad,peace be upon them) ,even the Bible has got many statements which do prohibit the different  forbidden outcomes  resulting from stunning today(blood,death of the animal,cruelty…)!
The merciful Jesus,peace be upon him, who was a Jew ,always ate and blessed  meat from  unstunned animals(KOSHER)!

But Christians unfortunately have failed to follow Jesus in eating Kosher (unstunned meat), as they failed in many other teachings of Jesus  too like circumcision?
Surely,GOD and all his merciful prophets and holy Scriptures in the 3 Abrahamic faiths can not be all wrong and cruel  by causing pain to the  slaughtered animal when is not stunned!..  Where is the evidence?
More,we all from the 3 Abrahamic Faiths,would like to recommend to DEFRA/FAWC/RSPA … and to the new president-elect of the British Veterinary Association  : Mr John Blackwell ,   and to  all the consumers and public at large  to eat the meat from unstunned animals for: Humane/animal welfare,Health ,economic  and religious reasons too!
No doubt,we are all  with ,all animal welfares and hygiene  regulations ,laws  and all new technology and sciences before and after the act of slaughter,but without any change to our HOLY PERMANENT ACT/CUT of animal slaughter  and which is sacred  in all the three Abrahamic Faiths.
It is a human right for any one to practice his/her religious belief and practices and we would like our  real HALAL slaughter/ meat to be  labelled(UNSTUNNED)  in order  to satisfy the demands of our own Muslim consumers(informed choice).

However , similarly ,we like to label all stunned meat :Bullet,gas,electric water bath, drowning , electric voltage…) in order to have a proper informed choice!

We Muslims, like to emphasize  that ,we do not intend or  try to force any non Muslim to eat our Holy Humane Halal  healthy meat.

FIFTH:We also like to emphasize , that  in the Islamic holy Scriptures, there are hundreds of orders/statements  on animal care and welfare..

In Islam , we are supposed to offer the best animal care and welfare to the animals during all their lives and from the moment of natural conception of each animal …and not only at time of slaughter!

(please see my published study on Animal care and welfare in Islam)

We do not need any pseudoscientist or an ignorant  misguided animal right campaigner, to teach us …when the foundation for animal rights, care and welfare, were stated clearly in Islam , about 1400 years ago !

In Islam , a person can go to hell if  his/her cat  was starved to death and dies!

Similarly, a person  can go to Heaven for getting water to a thirsty dying dog!

Today ,CRUELTY to all types of  animals is epidemic and endemic  in our farms, homes and abattoirs..?

This is why we have today hundreds of organisations which do  campaign for animal rights and welfare..

These are some of the common CRUELTY to animals in our society:

factory farming/battery cage(day and night cruelty on a large scale), dog and cock fighting , fox hunting ,animal experimentation/Vivisection ,pets abuse at home, pet abandonment, horse racing, animals in circus and in zoos, genetic manipulation ,sterilisation, maternal deprivation   and the routine animal husbandry practices such as ear tagging, tail docking and castration that are acknowledged as being more painful than slaughter without stunning………..

 The RSPCA receive  over 150 000 complaints /year regarding the cruelty and neglect to our innocent animals!

The British Veterinary Association(BVA) have got a LOT OF WORK TO DO in order to prevent the endemic/epidemic suffering  and cruelty  to our innocent animals who are unjustly and badly  treated on a large scale today !

This is the real work for BVA if they  really care  for animal welfare.

One thing  more we like to add:

Unfortunately, the public at large and the media and the MPs and Lords  are NOT AWARE of the many cruelty and suffering to the animals in the abattoirs today:

Kicking  beating and harsh pulling of the animals..

and in stunning: Pain and suffering, failure of stunning, repeat stunning, broken bones, paralysis of the animals etc…

If any one see , for example ,the horrible cruel  stunning of the poultry in hot electric water bath ,when they are hanged upside down in a cruel way….

he/she will never eat any chicken  !

Many Muslim leaders  and  many Jewish leaders  have been  wondering and questioning  over the years ,the motives behind these frequent attacks on our divine HUMANE  religious slaughter: A tenant of our  basic religious belief and practice:

-Is it Islamophobia ,  is it anti-Semitism ?

-Or is  it the AGGRESSIVE SECULARISM?

-Or is it the pressure of the Farm industry?

-Or is it a hidden political agenda?

-Or  is it simply a stupid ignorance with no science in it ?

OR IS IT  ALL OF THESE?

No doubt, these irresponsible frequent attacks on religious slaughter ,which are not based on sciences, merges on INCITEMENT TO RELIGIOUS HATRED and is a good ammunition to the far right: BNP,EDL and others ,to attack in many  different ways ,the proper halal industry ,the Halal shops, the Muslim consumers and the mosques , when the British Muslims  are practicing their faith and what is allowed and legal(Exemption from stunning for both Muslims and Jews) !

Finally :It is arrogant for any one who is not a Muslim to presume that he can teach us the practice of our faith,or pretend to be more merciful to the animal,than GOD Almighty or his merciful beloved prophets..!
GOD protect us from those who think they know better than HE!

SOME OF THE  WEBSITES AGAINST STUNNING:

–www.halaltayyibmeat.com

–www.halalansa.com

-www.unstunnedhalal.com
-www.halalmc.co.uk or www.halalmc.org
-www.iccservices.org.uk(regent Park mosque)
-www.iccuk.org
-www.mcb.org.uk
-www.thingsnotsaid.org
Jewish website: www.chechitauk.org

 
 
Dr A.Majid Katme(MBBCH,DPM)
 
Spokesman/Medical researcher : Islamic Medical Association/UK

 on  the Halal  Prophetic method of  animal slaughter for  true Halal meat

www.halaltayyibmeat.com

  Tel: 07944 240 622

 Address:

31 North Circular Road   Palmers Green  London N13 5EG