People of my own and other religions justify the practice of cutting animals' throats while they are fully conscious on 'religious' grounds that originated 4,000 years ago when there was no merciful way of killing them. Those that continue this practice today should recognise that they also have the religious obligation to be merciful toward them and to safeguard them from all fear and pain. To ignore this fact is to negate any prayer to a higher being, to their own detriment.