Should animals be stunned before slaughter?

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meltzerboy said:
I agree. And an even greater kindness would be not to kill animals altogether.
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But Jews are obligated to kill lambs at Passover, no? So God’s law takes second place to our warm and fuzzy environmental ideals?
 
LilyM said:
But Jews are obligated to kill lambs at Passover, no? So God’s law takes second place to our warm and fuzzy environmental ideals?
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Compassion for animals, also God’s creatures, has nothing to do with the environment. In the OT animal sacrifice is also asked for. How many Catholics follow or want to follow that and what percentage of Jews do animal sacrife today.
 
LilyM said:
But Jews are obligated to kill lambs at Passover, no? So God’s law takes second place to our warm and fuzzy environmental ideals?
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Lily, I believe that lamb is actually not permitted to be consumed during Passover because the Paschal lamb sacrifice was reserved for the Temple, which was destroyed. Animal sacrifices are to be resumed only when the Temple is rebuilt during the Messianic Age as prophesied. But other meat may be eaten (usually not roasted though), as well as chicken and fish.
 
severus68 said:
Compassion for animals, also God’s creatures, has nothing to do with the environment. In the OT animal sacrifice is also asked for. How many Catholics follow or want to follow that and what percentage of Jews do animal sacrife today.
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meltzerboy said:
Lily, I believe that lamb is actually not permitted to be consumed during Passover because the Paschal lamb sacrifice was reserved for the Temple, which was destroyed. Animal sacrifices are to be resumed only when the Temple is rebuilt during the Messianic Age as prophesied. But other meat may be eaten (usually not roasted though), as well as chicken and fish.
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I stand corrected. If I change ‘are obligated to kill lambs’ to ‘were obligated to kill lambs’ and ‘warm and fuzzy environmental ideals’ to ‘warm and fuzzy animal-rights ideals’ the point still stands, IMHO.
 
LilyM said:
I stand corrected. If I change ‘are obligated to kill lambs’ to ‘were obligated to kill lambs’ and ‘warm and fuzzy environmental ideals’ to ‘warm and fuzzy animal-rights ideals’ the point still stands, IMHO.
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If it makes you feel better, why not.
 
Animals should be loved, respected not be slaughtered, killed or harmed or caused pain by us, we have alternative way of living which is compassionate and non violent. Why not take it seriously?! Ah let me remember again, ego, we think its a pleasure and delicious to eat someone that what slaughtered in pain and fear, we find it delicious to build our life on other living sensitive beings misery. Or we take god as an excuse of such a violent behavior. Wow who are you to question god, god want us to kill animals, eat them and use their fur. And of course he’s a loving god! Umm ok whatever.
 
Houguy82 said:
Since I’m not a Jew, I cannot refer to the specifics of Kashrut law.
But should animals be somehow incapacitated prior to slaughter ? Absolutely ! The end of their lives is a fact of life, people eat animals, I like cow … a cow’s gotta die ! 😉
I can’t imagine a reasonable person would want to watch another one of God’s creatures suffer a slow death such as exanguination.
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I actually disagree. I feel Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter is more merciful than mass-produced slaughter.

The animals don’t suffer a long, drawn-out death; the loss of blood causes them to pass out within seconds. There’s also a great emphasis, in both Jewish and Muslim slaughter, that butchers not cause the animals more pain than necessary, and for that reason the method is very scrupulous. I don’t know all the details for Muslim slaughter, but Jewish butchers nowadays are highly specialised in what they do; most of them are doctors, so I would expect them to know how to handle an animal more humanely than someone who wasn’t a doctor. Furthermore, the butcher can’t have a go with any knife, in any way he would like; the knife has to be non-serrated and he has to be very careful to make a clean slit, otherwise it would invalidate the slaughter (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita).

Stunning can fail during mass slaughter but failure rate’s not so much of a problem as accountability and reliability IMO. With thousands of cows, chickens, etc. going in and out of the slaughterhouses every day, I don’t think mass slaughterhouses respond well to inhumane treatment of their animals, especially because there will always be demand for meat and animal rights activism it seems will always be on the fringes. In contrast Jewish and Islamic slaughter assumes a philosophy to be mindful of what you eat and to prepare it ethically, so I would imagine their butchers would respond to ethical problems if they came up.
 
Flyingg said:
Animals should be loved, respected not be slaughtered, killed or harmed or caused pain by us, we have alternative way of living which is compassionate and non violent. Why not take it seriously?! Ah let me remember again, ego, we think its a pleasure and delicious to eat someone that what slaughtered in pain and fear, we find it delicious to build our life on other living sensitive beings misery. Or we take god as an excuse of such a violent behavior. Wow who are you to question god, god want us to kill animals, eat them and use their fur. And of course he’s a loving god! Umm ok whatever.
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You should eat meat. It’s quite good. 😉
 
Bezant said:
I actually disagree. I feel Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter is more merciful than mass-produced slaughter.

The animals don’t suffer a long, drawn-out death; the loss of blood causes them to pass out within seconds. There’s also a great emphasis, in both Jewish and Muslim slaughter, that butchers not cause the animals more pain than necessary, and for that reason the method is very scrupulous. I don’t know all the details for Muslim slaughter, but Jewish butchers nowadays are highly specialised in what they do; most of them are doctors, so I would expect them to know how to handle an animal more humanely than someone who wasn’t a doctor. Furthermore, the butcher can’t have a go with any knife, in any way he would like; the knife has to be non-serrated and he has to be very careful to make a clean slit, otherwise it would invalidate the slaughter (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita).

Stunning can fail during mass slaughter but failure rate’s not so much of a problem as accountability and reliability IMO. With thousands of cows, chickens, etc. going in and out of the slaughterhouses every day, I don’t think mass slaughterhouses respond well to inhumane treatment of their animals, especially because there will always be demand for meat and animal rights activism it seems will always be on the fringes. In contrast Jewish and Islamic slaughter assumes a philosophy to be mindful of what you eat and to prepare it ethically, so I would imagine their butchers would respond to ethical problems if they came up.
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In theory yes but in practice the Islamic slaughter I know of is not humane and the rules are not followed.
 
I personally believe that they should be but that is just my own personal belief. I believe that we should strive to reduce the pain that animals experience when being slaughtered but we shouldn’t go to extremes in order to do this. We should use reasonable, economical, effective, and efficient means to at least try to reduce the pain that animals go through before being slaughtered for whatever reason.

Here is an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I have highlighted certain parts of it which I think are the most relevant to this conversation:
Respect for the integrity of creation
**
2415** The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity.195 Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.196
**
2416** Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory.197 Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.
**
2417 God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image.198 Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving human lives.
**
2418** It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons.
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195 Cf. Gen 128-31.
196 Cf. CA 37-38.
197 Cf. Mt 6:26; Dan 3:79-81.
198 Cf. Gen 2:19-20; 9:1-4.
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So yeah, we should not cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. However, it is still legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. We also owe animals kindness. I think that reasonable means of reducing their pain before we slaughter them would be a good way to show them kindness.

I also think that we need to crack down on animal abuse in factory farms and slaughter houses and such. I have seen several videos that show animals being horrendously abused before being slaughtered. This needs to stop. Its fine to slaughter animals for food and clothing but they should still be treated humanely and unfortunately, they are not always treated humanely before being slaughtered.

In the videos, I saw, the type of abuse I saw included things like slamming chickens against walls to break their necks, kicking animals very hard, and basically just being very cruel to them. This behavior was totally unnecessary and that is the kind of behavior that I am against.
 
Bezant said:
I actually disagree. I feel Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter is more merciful than mass-produced slaughter.

The animals don’t suffer a long, drawn-out death; the loss of blood causes them to pass out within seconds.
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You are joking!
 
severus68 said:
When lab made meat is freely available, you can eat that. Many businesses go bankrupt tc and people are laid off. This can be done slowly with people in those jobs switching. There will be no more breeding of animals for slaughter so eventually, only few for pets would be left.
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I’m not eating factory meat - I’ll raise my own meat if I have to. 😃
 
I am going to be sick. losing faith in all of you. I would rather eat grass than kill a rabbit. I love my God and follow to the depths of hell and back, but the hell you all make on earth is worse.
 
elibrimom said:
I am going to be sick. losing faith in all of you. I would rather eat grass than kill a rabbit. I love my God and follow to the depths of hell and back, but the hell you all make on earth is worse.
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🤷

Can you show me the part in the bible where it says we cannot eat or kill animals?

No?

Didn’t think so. No need to be so harsh.
 
Neildown said:
I’m not eating factory meat - I’ll raise my own meat if I have to. 😃
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So its ‘yuck’ to lab made actual meat where no animal needs to suffer but its not ‘yuck’ to meat obtained from causing an animal to suffer?
 
LemonAndLime said:
🤷

Can you show me the part in the bible where it says we cannot eat or kill animals?

No?

Didn’t think so. No need to be so harsh.
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I think he/she was just expressing his/her feelings and being emotional. He/she never referred to th bible.
 
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