Islamic method of Animal slaughtering is safe , hygienic and humane.

1. Islamic Slaughtering
Judged on humane & Scientific Grounds
DR S. A. Tirmazi

2. The visiting Card of Our LORD

3. What is Islamic Slaughtering

4. Preamble

5. After World War II, most Governments in
Europe decided to ban the ancient religious
method of animal slaughter and replaced it
with captive bolt stunning, which they
thought was more scientific and humane to
animals

6. Islamic slaughtering
• The animal has to be lawful to eat, alive, healthy, to be
slaughtered only for the reason of food, in the name of
The Creator, ALLAH and not for any other reasons
• It has to be well-fed, not thirsty handled and moved
gently and individually
• The act of slaughter starts by pronouncing the name of
ALLAH (s.w.t), The Creator , to take His permission and
in order to make the Slaughter-man accountable and
responsible and to give compassion and mercy to the
animal during this act

7. Islamic slaughtering
• The slaughter should never be done in the
presence of other animals and the animal should
be made comfortable as it is positioned for the
sacrifice. The act of the sacrifice should be done
with a sharp object, so as to accelerate the
process and reduce the pain suffered by the
animal as much as possible
• The slaughter-man must be in possession of a
clear mind and not under the influence of alcohol
or drugs, trained in the job, with an awareness of
what he is doing

8. The method of Islamic
slaughtering

9. The Method of Islamic Slaughtering!
• The animal has to be slaughtered with a sharp
object (knife) and in a fast way so that the pain of
slaughter is minimized
• Cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood
vessels in the neck causing the animal’s death
without cutting the spinal cord
• The blood has to be drained completely before
the head is removed. The purpose is to drain out
most of the blood which would serve as a good
culture medium for micro organisms

10. The Method of Islamic Slaughtering
• The spinal cord must not be cut because the
nerve fibres to the heart could be damaged
during the process causing cardiac arrest,
stagnating the blood in the blood vessels

11. Advantages of Islamic
Slaughtering

12. Advantages related to hygiene
• Blood is a good media of germs, bacteria, toxins,
etc. Therefore the Muslim way of slaughtering is
more hygienic as most of the blood containing
germs, bacteria, toxins, etc. that are the cause of
several diseases are eliminated
• Meat slaughtered by Islamic way remains fresh
for a longer time due to deficiency of blood in the
meat as compared to other methods of
slaughtering

13. • An amazing result of cooking and consuming
halal meat is a healthy meat in which the
resulting texture is tender and the meat
delicious. Some people say they can “taste the
difference
Ref:
Yvonne Maffei Yvonne Maffei, M.A., is a culinary educator and
the founder and Editor of My Halal Kitchen

14. Humane and less painful to the Animal
• The swift cutting of vessels of the neck
disconnects the flow of blood to the nerve of the
brain responsible for pain
• Thus the animal does not feel pain
• depriving the brain of its main source of oxygen
and glucose, and with no blood which is
necessary to keep the animal alive and
functioning and able to deal with any perceptive
sensation this leads to anoxia and almost
immediate loss of consciousness (anesthetization
or “stunning” ).

15. Humane and less painful to the Animal
• While dying, the animal struggles, writhers, shakes and
kicks, not due to pain, but due to the contraction and
relaxation of the muscles deficient in blood and due to the
flow of blood out of the body
• After this short resting phase, and because the brain is
deprived of oxygen and blood due to the huge amount of
bleeding, the heartbeats increase in order to increase the
flow of blood to the brain and other deprived areas.
• Tonic and clonic involuntary contractions and convulsions
start and occur as automatic physiological reflexes in order
to send and push blood up, especially to the brain.

16. Humane and less painful to the Anima
These contractions and convulsions are
‘painless’ (not, as the layman would imagine,
that the kicking is due to the pain) especially
when the animal is already unconscious and
still has an intact spinal cord with safe nerve
centers to the limbs, muscles and organs

17. Lord Horder GCVO, MD, FRCP states
• The animal loses consciousness immediately. It is difficult to
conceive a more painless and rapid mode of death; for a
few seconds after the cut is made, the animal makes no
movement its body is then convulsed, the convulsive
movements continue for about a minute and then cease.
The interpretation of this fact is clear: the cut is made by a
knife so sharp and so skillfully handled that a state of
syncope with its associated unconsciousness follows
instantaneously upon the severing of the blood pressure.
• The movement of the animal which begins at about 90
seconds are epileptiform in nature and are due to the
blood-less state of the brain (cerebral ischemia with
complete anoxaemia). Sensation has been abolished at the
moment of the initial syncope.’

18. Others
• DR Leonard Hill (1923)
• Sir Lovatt Evans
• Professor Harold Burrow
• I M Levingen (1979)
• Professor F R Bell
• Mr. Openshaw
• Mr. Hayhurst etc. (Some are quoted, in Impact
Magazine 1985).

19. Methods of slaughter used today by
Non-Muslims.
The captive bolt pistol used
commonly for cattle, calves and
goats

20. Methods
• It is the shooting, by a gun or pistol in the
forehead (mechanical method) by a blank
cartridge or compressed air. It could be
penetrating or non-penetrating (percussion
stunning)
• It breaks the skull, shatters and destroys the
brain. A rod of steel is introduced in the skull hole
to smash, cut and destroy the brain [pithing:now
to be prohibited in UK and Europe by January
2001].

21. Methods
• All this occurs before the real slaughtering cut
is made. Recently, a new method by which a
steel needle to penetrate the skull and brain
and in which air is injected to cause
interacranial pressure has been developed.

22. USA
• Some 30 to 40 percent of American cattle are
stunned by pneumatic guns, which fire a metal
bolt into a cow's brain followed by a pulverizing
burst of 150 pounds of air pressure.
• The method is popular at larger U.S. meat plants
because it renders cattle insensible longer than
other techniques, erasing concerns the animals
might revive before they are killed and cause
havoc in a long processing line. Pneumatic guns
are not used widely abroad.

23. Disadvantages
• Improper stunning (failure of stunning leading to re-
stunning and double shots (FAWC 1982 and 1984);
• Paralysis of the animal while still conscious (FAWC 1982
and 1984);
• ‘Depressed skull fracture’ and considerable damage to
the brain (FAWC 1984);
• Brain contamination (Blackmore 1979);
• Blood splash (extranvasation of blood from vessels Into
muscle and meat with some clotting of the blood)
(Blackmore 1979);
• Brain hemorrhage (Blackmore 1979);

24. Disadvantages
• Bruising and injuries from the heavy fall of the
animal after the shot;
• Death reported by Lawton (1971); Temple
Grandin (1980) stated that tests on sheep and
calves indicated that penetrating captive bolt
stunning actually kills the animal;
• Damage or harm to the meat. Marple (1977)
stated ‘Captive bolts should be discontinued in
view of theirdetrimental effect on meat quality.
(Quoted by Biala 1983)

25. Evidence…?
• WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A stun gun used on
cattle before slaughter can send brain tissue
scattering throughout the animal, which could
provide a route for madcow disease to spread to
humans, a consumer group said Thursday
• ``These new discoveries mean that some of the
steaks and hamburgers Amercans eat today may
contain small bits of brain matter,'' said David
Schardt, nutritionist at the Center for Science in
the Public Interest.

26. Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is done by moving the
animal through a room which contains a
mixture of CO2 and air (about 65/70% CO2 by
volume). It is used only for pigs. It is a form of
chemical strangulation. CO2 is a harmful gas
to be inside the body.

27. CO2
• Considerable, unacceptable stress (violent excitation,
general agitation and convulsions)
• ‘CO2 stunning is more stressful than either properly applied
electrical or captive bolt stunning’ (Temple Grandin 1980).
• Suffocation, strangulation and death to the animal before
the cut; death was reported by Glen (1971).
• Toxic effect of the gas on the blood and physiology.
• It is definitely a cruel way for the animal and I would like to
quote here also from FAWC (1984) when they discussed
pain; ‘It is doubtful whether the animal feels pain or is even
conscious’. This method has been banned in Holland and
many other European countries

28. Electrical Stunning
Low Voltage Electrical Stunning by a pair of
scissors-like tongs with circular or rectangular
electrodes which are usually immersed in a
saline solution then applied to the side of the
head. Voltage is not less than 75 volts (50 Hz
mains frequency) for not less than seven
seconds.

29. Disadvantages
• It is cruel, by giving an electric shock directly, with
no anesthesia;
• paralysis while the animal is conscious (pain);
• doubt about the effect and feeling of pain;
• unreliable: missed shots and re-stunning;
• Recovery of the animal usually occurs within 30-
40 seconds. Electric stunning only induces
paralysis, not unconsciousness, leaving the
animal helpless but completely conscious to pain.
(E.H. Callow from his book ‘Food Hygiene)

30. Dr V K Modi
HOD of meat technology at the Central
Food Technology Research Institute Mysore
Halal method is effective in draining out most of the
blood from a slaughtered animal, which is vital if its
meat is to be soft
"In jhatka, chances of blood clotting are higher. This
could spoil the meat if it's kept uncooked for a few
days. It could also make the meat tougher to chew."
"Halal is considered healthier because after slaughter,
blood is drained from the animal's arteries, ejecting
most toxins because the heart continues to pump for a
few seconds after slaughter. In jhatka, not all the blood
is drained, leaving the meat tougher and drier."

31. The Last Straw
A German experiment !

32. Experimental Details:
• Several electrodes were surgically implanted
at various points of the skull of all animals,
touching the surface of the brain
• The animals were allowed to recover for
several weeks.
• Some animals were slaughtered by making a
swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the
neck cutting the jugular veins and carotid
Arteries of both sides; as also the trachea and
esophagus Halal Method

33. Experimental Details:
• Some animals were stunned using a captive
bolt pistol humane slaughter by the western
method.
• During the experiment, EEG and ECG were
recorded on all animals to record the
condition of the brain and heart during the
course of slaughter and stunning.

34. Results and Discussion:
Islamic Method
• The first three seconds from the time of
Islamic slaughter as recorded on the EEG did
not show any change from the graph before
slaughter, thus indicating that the animal did
not feel any pain during or immediately after
the incision.
• For the following 3 seconds, the EEG recorded
a condition of deep sleep - unconsciousness.
This is due to a large quantity of blood gushing
out from the body.

35. Results and Discussion:
Islamic Method
• After the above mentioned 6 seconds, the EEG
recorded zero level, showing no feeling of pain
at all.
• As the brain message (EEG) dropped to zero
level, the heart was still pounding and the
body convulsing vigorously (a reflex action of
the spinal cord) driving maximum blood from
the body: resulting in hygienic meat for the
consumer.

36. Western method by Stunning
• The animals were apparently unconscious soon
after stunning.
• EEG showed severe pain immediately after
stunning.
• The hearts of the animal stunned by C.B.P. stopped
beating earlier as compared to those of the
animals slaughtered according to the Halal method
resulting in the retention of more blood inthe
meat. This in turn is unhygienic for the consumer.
• (Many thanks to Muslim Students Organization -
University of Miami)

37. The study was accepted…
• In 1978, a study incorporating EEG
(electroencephalograph) with electrodes surgically
implanted on the skull of 17 sheep and 15 calves, and
conducted by Wilhelm Schulze et al. at the University
of Veterinary Medicine in Germany concluded that
"the slaughter in the form of a ritual cut is, if carried
out properly, painless in sheep and calves according to
EEG recordings and the missing defensive actions" (of
the animals) and that "For sheep, there were in part
severe reactions both in bloodletting cut and the pain
stimuli" when captive bolt stunning(CBS) was used.
This study is cited by the German Constitutional Court
in its permitting of 'Dhabiha slaughtering'.

38. And more….
• in April 2008,the French Ministry of Food, Agriculture
and Fishing has published ASIDCOM’s Bibliographical
Report on Religious Slaughter and the Welfare of
Animals, as a contribution within the framework of a
meeting on animals and society organized in 2008. This
report quotes scientific papers and French veterinary
PhD which support the equality or even possible
superiority of religious slaughter to other methods of
slaughter.
• This report quotes in particular the Ph.D work of Dr
Pouillaude which concludes by:"religious slaughter
would thus be a less stressing mode of slaughter

39. Economical considerations
• Halal, a $2.1 trillion industry is growing at the
rate of $500 million annually. "By 2015, Muslims
will account for 25 per cent of the global
population. Even in a country like France, there
are over eight million Muslims, who love meat.
Their needs cannot be ignored.“
• In USA The rising acceptance of halal meat due to
its scientific and hygienic slaughtering and
processing methods is spicing up the US 600
billion global halal meat market impressively

40. Conclusion
Islamic method of slaughtering is Hygienic and
Humane and should be practiced by all