Lets talk science - Halal meat
(I did a post previously about Halal meat but I didn't go into technical detail about it. So here it is..)
--Firstly lets recap about non-Halal slaughter of animals--
The most common method is to stun the animal by 'shooting' it in the head using a captive bolt pistol - a kind of gun with a retractable bolt on it (so that it can be re-used, removes need to buy bullets) before slitting the animals throat - in the UK it is illegal to kill an animal without first stunning it either by this method or by electrocution (however there are exceptions for religious groups e.g. Halal or Kosher). The bolt is shot into the brain of the animal and as a result it falls unconscious and does not move any more - to the outside viewer this may seem peaceful, but when we look further we see the reality..
A team of researchers at the University of Hannover in Germany examined the pain levels of captive bolt pistol vs. Halal by taking EEG and ECG records during the two types of slaughter. Electrodes were implanted at various points of the skull of the animals several weeks prior to slaughter, to allow them to monitor the activity of the brain and heart. In the results for the non-halal method the EEG records spiked, indicating severe pain, immediately after stunning. This method causes the heart to stop, but as the EEG results show the animal still feels pain, (despite it's 'peaceful' appearance) until it's death.
The throat of the animal is slit using an extremely sharp knife - this severs the carotid arteries, jugular veins, oesophagus, and trachea, but leaves the spinal cord intact.
As I'm sure you are aware, when a knife is sharp enough you won't even feel it cut you, there is no pain in the wound until later, so claims that the initial cut hurts the animal are ridiculous. Unless you are using a blunt knife (which is forbidden) the animal shouldn't feel this cut.
Now, the blood in veins and arteries is constantly under pressure (low or high), to make it flow all around the body. When the throat of the animal is cut, there is a huge fall in the blood pressure (as acute blood loss begins), and this change in pressure causes a lack of oxygen to the brain - the animal immediately falls unconscious. During all of this first part the animal is very calm, and seems to fall asleep. However after about 90 seconds the heart and brain are becoming deprived of oxygen, this results in short involuntary spasms from the heart and body in an attempt to send blood up to the brain - despite the appearance these are painless, and the animal is deeply unconscious. The EEG records of a Halal slaughter showed no change after the incision was made, and the following three seconds indicated a deep sleep-like unconsciousness brought on by blood loss - before falling to zero. This indicates that the animal felt no pain throughout. After the EEG reads zero the convulsions begin, and no doubt must look very gruesome to onlookers, but at this point despite the heart still beating the animal cannot record any sensual messages - it cannot register any pain.
Despite the fact that we know slitting a human's throat would be a very painful way to die, animals are not made the same way as us! Many of the animals we eat, cattle for example, have a certain artery that goes directly to their brain, and cutting this artery is what causes them to fall unconscious. Although the animal is still technically 'alive' as the blood drains out (in the sense that it's heart is still beating), it is no longer capable of feeling pain.
So as you can see the appearance of the two slaughters is quite deceiving. Some scientists and animal rights groups argue that by stunning the animal with the captive bolt method they are simply becoming 'locked in' and unable to express their pain, because their nervous system is no longer fully intact.
You can easily find videos of both types of slaughter on youtube and if you still have doubts I urge you to see the terrible conditions under which non-halal slaughter takes place, they are literally confined in mass to a tiny conveyer belt, with barely enough room to move, whilst a man stuns them one after the other as they pass him. Islam tells us we should respect and care for animals and cause them as little pain as possible.
--So if Halal is the best way, then why isn't it already used?--
Clearly the meat production industry would favour the non-Halal method of slaughter, because it's much easier to have animals on a conveyer belt if they aren't going to move about when you kill them. It would be more costly and time-consuming for them to have to accommodate a moving animal. It's just 'easier' for them to cause the animal pain.
