(July 8, 2011 at 8:33 am)Rhythm Wrote: After an exhaustive search of regulations and regulatory bodies specific to the UK, and an email to the FSA, it would appear that while the use of things like captive bolt and lethal stunning are prohibited, the animal CAN be stunned before the knife is drawn. It simply may not be "stunned to death". An animal does not have to be stunned to be halal (and in fact there is considerable incentive not to do so), but it can be.
Yes, if stunning the animal does not make the animal dead, then that is allowed in some communities, because it is intended only to knock the animal unconscious so that it does not feel pain and that it is brought under control. According to this opinion, stunning does not render the animal unlawful for a Muslim unless it is dead before slaughter because in a hadith, Muhammad said, "Allah has prescribed excellence and compassion in all things, so when you kill, kill well; when you slaughter, slaughter well, and let him sharpen his knife and spare the animal pain." And basically, the only conditions for the meat to be halal is that (1) the animal is not dead, (2) that Allah's name is mentioned during the the slaughter, and (3) to cut from the jugular vein so that blood is drained from the animal.
However, most Muslims are doubtful about the permissibility of stunning, because such a thing didn't exist in Muhammad's time, and that's why they prefer to kill the animal without stunning first.
