The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), which advises the government on how to avoid cruelty to livestock, says the way Kosher and Halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals.
The recent media coverage of slaughter houses in Indonesia shows cattle being tortured and slowly bleeding to death after being cut in the throat dozens of times. While this is NOT the recommended practice for halal or kosher slaughter, it is a widespread occurence throughout the world.
Even when a very sharp knive is used and the animal is treated well, it's blood will go into the lungs and cause suffocation and prolongued suffering.
For halal and kosher slaughter is is not even necessary that the animal is conscious at it's death. It only has to be alive and breathing! Therefore this cruel way of killing an animal is totally unnecessary and cannot be advocated by any religion. Stun guns should be used in any slaughter.
The stun used is a very low voltage that knocks the animal out for around 15-20 seconds. After 20 seconds it is potentially back to normal and during that 20 seconds it is alive and breathing. This means that when the animal is cut it still bleeds the animal properly.
If any animal is stunned and as a consequence dies, it would be haram to eat. However the chances of this happening are extremely slim if not impossible.
The popular belief that stunning rendered meat as haram does not correspond to what scholars have said. They, in agreement with many others, concluded that the act of stunning does not make meat haram as long as the animal is alive and the rules of slaughter are adhered to.
