Health
Removal of Blood:
It is clear that the removal of the maximum amount of
blood before death of the animal is crucial to the purity of the meat. In the
various methods of stunning, animals may undergo cardiac arrest after stunning,
either unintentionally, such as electric head-only stunning, or intentionally,
such as electric water bath stunning, in which enough electricity is used to
ensure cardiac arrest of poultry. From the results of the experiment of the German University was that the hearts of animals stunned by CBP stopped beating earlier as
compared to those of the animals slaughtered according to the Islamic method
resulting in the retention of more blood in the meat. Stunning also causes ‘salt
and pepper’ hemorrhage where the small blood vessels rapture, and blood leaks
into the meat tissue. All these techniques cause the blood to remain in the
vessels, encouraging the spawning of microorganisms.
Contamination of Meat
There is a rising concern that stunning may be a factor
in the spread of mad cow’s disease from cattle to humans, as it was discovered
in recent research carried out at Texas A&M University and by Canada’s Food
Inspection Agency, that a method called pneumatic stunning (which is the firing
of a metal bolt into the cow's brain followed by a pulverizing burst of 150
pounds of air pressure) delivered a force so explosive that it scattered brain
tissue throughout the animal. This news is disturbing since the brain tissue
and spinal cord are the most infectious parts of an animal with mad cow
disease, which causes fatal Swiss cheese like holes in the brain of the
infected animal. It is more disturbing to find out that around 30 to 40
percent of American cattle are stunned by pneumatic guns.
It was found by an experiment conducted by Gregory and
Whittington in 1992 and published in Research in Veterinary Science under the
title of Inhalation of Water During Electrical Stunning in Chickens that
“chickens can and do inhale water during electric stunning in a water bath. No
remedy for this is available at the moment.” It was also noticed that birds
may defecate while being stunned and so live birds may inhale water fouled by
feces at stunning, thus making their meat unhygienic as the fluids may leak out
of the lungs and cause contamination.
Fear of Death
In many of these stunning techniques, animals die before
they are slaughtered, either unintentionally, such as CBP and electric
head-only stunning, or intentionally, such as gassing. This, according to
Islam, renders the meat unlawful for human consumption, as it enters the
category of carrion meat.
Conclusion
The legislations of the religion come from a Divine
source, the Creator of all that exist, One Whose knowledge of His creation is
infinite. This fact necessitates that all things mandated by God in the
religion are done so from this Divine Knowledge, and therefore must be ultimate
in all ways. Analyzing the legislations mandated and recommended in the
religion of Islam will definitely come to show that indeed they are the best
and most suitable to any given circumstance, and that they have a common
denominator, the maximization of benefits and reduction of harm. As some people
classify the Islamic method of slaughter to be cruelty to animals, the reality
shows facts quite the opposite. Accusations of animal cruelty should very
rightly be focused on those who do not use the Islamic way of slaughtering, but
prefer to use those methods which cause pain and agony to the animal and could
also very well cause harm to those consuming the meat
Sources:
Is Islamic Slaughtering Cruel to Animals? Dr. Aisha
El-Awady
Is Stunning Animals Really Humane? Dr. Aisha
El-Awady
Going for the Kill. Juliet Gellatley BSc
(Zoology)
Sentenced to Death. Rebecca Smith
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