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) !
