Yourself?

Oh yes, I forgot. Nobody can control Kenneth when he is ranting. No matter, I'll just advise our readers not to try -too- hard to puzzle out what he's trying to say when he goes into rant mode.

Thoughts on Halal Meat:

My sister showed me a right wing publication that accused the Blair government of being hypocritical for trying to ban fox hunting because animals slaughtered the Halal way aren't stunned before having their throats cut, being hung upside down and bleeding to death. To put it another, way, "A chap says some kind prayer and then the cow's throat is slit, while fully conscious, and it bleeds to death. It may be a full three minutes before the heart pumps its last." Some research is actually rather enlightening:

http://www.warmwell.com/dec23bryn.html

"In a 22-page booklet on farm animal welfare, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals described shechitah, the kosher method of slaughter -- as well as halal, the Islamic code of animal slaughter -- as painful and distressing to animals. "It is a fundamental right of religious groups to practice their beliefs without hindrance," the booklet stated. "But where those beliefs are directly responsible for animal suffering, that right has to be challenged." "Surely it is not unreasonable to suggest that, in the light of new scientific knowledge and society's more caring attitudes to animals, religious traditions might be changed," it added. "

On the other hand, Muslim sources claim that the Halal butchers slit the veins in a way such that they bleed to death quickly. They don't say anything about stunning the animal, though. I'm not an authority on this issue, but I still think it would be more humane to stun the animal first or even just behead it. And the reason why Sikhs don't eat Halal meat: "Mind you some cultures/ religion do not eat meat that is halal e.g. Sikhism they believe in "Jhatka" cut meat, i.e. straight cut with minimal torture to the animal e.g. not slow release bleeding to death and some Sikhs I have seen refuse halal meat even in Malaysia.". Yet another reason to try to eat non-Halal meat, then.

To end off, a thought offered by someone: "Arguing over which methods of killing are more humane seems a bit pointless since the only ones who could tell you are dead." Heh.

posted by Agagooga @ 5:51 pm