annie88 said:
You could easily look it up.
And I'm sure some of them don't feel as much pain as others, depending on the person doing it and I know that there are some horrible stories from slaughter houses in America, but they slit the throat, making sure not to touch the spinal cord. That alone has to be pretty damn painful. Think about getting your throat slit.
They have to let the animal bleed out which means it may or may not be dead or not suffering on the initial swipe. If they didn't cut it correctly, they may have to cut it a second or third time causing more pain.
So how long they're lying they're suffering you don't know. Just because the animal is quiet doesn't mean it's not suffering.
Complete drainage is required because blood is prohibited in Islamic law, and its removal is believed to improve meat hygiene.
The head must not be cut off completely, and the carcass cannot be skinned or butchered until the animal is completely dead. (thankfully)
Prohibited Areas: The sciatic nerve and specific blood vessels, particularly in the hindquarters, are not consumed.
But seriously, look it up. I knew about some of it, but not that last part. It's not hard just type it into your search engine.
But in all honesty, if we're going to complain about killing any animals for meat we must be consistent. But I would really rather them be stunned, which apparently they can do in halal but don't have to.
So far, there is nothing "very cruel" there. It's pretty much business as usual.
There are packing plants about 20 miles from home and I have toured one of them. I didn't see them killing the animals, but I did see much of the rest of the operation.
From what I've been told, some cattle are not immediately stunned and it may take two or three tries. Also, some of them will regain awareness before they are actually killed. A swift knife cut of the throat and they will quickly bleed out and lose consciousness and die.
As far as cruelty, one of the strangest things I have read about was a practice in the Telegraph Creek area of British Columbia by the natives who lived there. They fished for a living. Sometimes they would catch a really large fish that was so large that if they killed it and cut it up right there, much of the meat would spoil before they could eat it all. So they would build a small pond for the fish and then would slice out what they needed from the live fish to prepare the meal and leave the fish alive. They were supposedly able to keep the fish alive for several meals to keep the meat fresh.
For what it's worth, that was from Edward Hoagland's
Notes from the Century Before: A Journal from British Columbia. While I was reading that particular account, a young woman (mid 20s) I knew walked up and asked what I was reading. So I read that to her. That was a big mistake -- she would never speak to me again.
I don't know if true, but I have read about people in some cultures eating animals that were still alive and breathing. That includes eating the brain of a live monkey.
A grand nephew of mine once ate a live octopus while he was stationed in Suth Korea in the military.
Want to hear something really cringeworthy? Until a few years ago, babies needing open heart surgery usually went through them without using anesthesia. I hope that they use it now -- my grand nephew who once ate a live octopus in South Korea has a new-born baby diagnosed with Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA). As I understand it, they will have to operate to correct that condition. I sure hope that they use anesthesia for it.
Also, don't forget circumcision of baby boys. Also, there is female circumcision of pre-teen girls in some cultures as well.
By the way, I learned years ago not to talk about certain things while eating because of the effect it has on some people -- branding cattle, castrating cattle, and especially, dehorning cattle. Also, when castrating sheep, it's best not to have braces if you do it the old fashioned way.
So I don't see the as anything out of the ordinary to slice their neck and let them bleed to death. It's over quickly. My assumption is that the biggest problem is of the brain responding to the sudden lack of oxygen before going unconscious.
