Why is halal legal?

[Napoléon]

For all the animal welfare legislation we have in the western world it staggers me that this disgusting ritual known as "dhabihah" is legal.
If you don't know what it is take a read of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhabihah

One particular quote which made me want to throw up is this:

Various research papers on cattle slaughter collected by Compassion In World Farming mention that "after the throat is cut, large clots can form at the severed ends of the carotid arteries, leading to occlusion of the wound (or “ballooning” as it is known in the slaughtering trade). Nick Cohen wrote in the New Statesman, "Occlusions slow blood loss from the carotids and delay the decline in blood pressure that prevents the suffering brain from blacking out. In one group of calves, 62.5 per cent suffered from ballooning. Even if the slaughterman is a master of his craft and the cut to the neck is clean, blood is carried to the brain by vertebral arteries and it keeps cattle conscious of their pain."

It makes me sick to even see this halal shit paraded around take-aways and restaurants, advertised like a fucking badge of honor. The only reason this method of slaughtering livestock isn't banned is because of religion. It's a joke.

[The Grand Nudger]

Compassion is indeed for the weak! However, Halal is a joke. Before anyone jumps in and makes the claim "but such and such has proven Halal to be an effective policy for food safety"..dodging the issue that I would dispute the claim... is it unreasonable to assume that a group of people who subscribed to a completely unsanitary method of food safety..during the bronze age...may not have survived to pass on their particular culinary fixations? In other words, the religious sect lost to history, which proposed the wholesale consumption of human feces did not leave any descendants to remember the rules.

[fr0d0]

I think it's on a par with the JWs anti transfusion nonsense. A doggedly strict adherence to a practice that has been clearly proven to be barbaric.

Then again, there's nothing to be proud of in the unethical treatment of animals in general we all (generalising) support.

[The Grand Nudger]

Meh, I doubt that lions would give us a better deal than the one we give our livestock..were the shoe on the other foot. Some of the shit we do to our livestock is absolutely terrible though..lol.

BTW, I have a former JW friend that had an interesting insight on that as a nurse in my hometowns ER (we have alot of JW..and Scientologists too,,,beyond the point). The ones who came in unconscious, and were identified as JW largely did not receive transfusions (some did apparently regardless of their beliefs).....the ones who came in conscious....apparently ceased to be JW long enough to let doctors save their lives with transfusions. Anecdotal, but I always remember it when people mention JW and transfusions.

[Minimalist]

In other words, the religious sect lost to history, which proposed the wholesale consumption of human feces did not leave any descendants to remember the rules.

No, no....xtians are still around and they all eat shit.

[The Magic Pudding]

Australia has a short term ban on live cattle transport after film from Indonesian abattoirs was aired on national TV.
Stunning would seem to solve many objections but the font of all wisdom didn't need electricity 1500 years ago, so why change now?

I think worse than the end is the final weeks of life, sheep are crammed onto ships and many die in the heat and shit on the way across the Indian Ocean. The ones lucky enough to arrive in the holy land get tossed in some car trunk and then get taken home to face a noble death.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Meh, I doubt that lions would give us a better deal than the one we give our livestock..were the shoe on the other foot.

Tu quoque (appeal to hypocrisy) and irrelevant. IE I may not use your crimes to justify my crimes.

[The Grand Nudger]

LOL, padraic, was just an amusing turn of phrase. I've been in food production for awhile, and I'm an avid hunter. I've dropped the hammer on more than a few animals in my time and I'd be lying if I told you that they died with dignity. When pressed about this, I can admit abject cruelty for no reasons other than to satisfy a predatory instinct and the love of barbecued meat. I only have myself to point at here. Halal, on the other hand, is preparing livestock in a manner that is assumed to appease the lord god.

[Violet]

Why would Halal be illegal? So far it seems you cite only pain in the creature before it dies. Well so fucking what?

And yet I really don't care either way. Mostly eat fruit/grain/vegetable as it is.

[The Grand Nudger]

Because, Sae, there are in fact laws against cruelty, even in the butchering business. Halal avoids these laws by claiming that it is an article of faith. Not that you would care, of course.

Complete accord between us on the "so fucking what" though...lol. I mean, I am about to eat this animal aren't I. Can't think of anything more "cruel".