Should animals be stunned before slaughter?

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Hokomai said:
Where I live we export huge amounts of Halal meat to Muslim countries. All are stunned before slaughter, with full observance of ritual. The original methods do not include stunning, but because the animal is still alive when its throat is cut after stunning, and because it is more humane, it is accepted and welcomes by Muslim communities. Google “halal slaughter”.
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There were a lot of animals sacrified during the recent Muslim haj festival and in Spain and other countries, I know the animals were restrained but not stunned.
 
Hokomai said:
Religions should not require animals to experience pain which can be avoided.
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That’s basically exactly what I said, but there’s one problem - some methods do essentially require the animal to feel some sort of pain. As for not eating meat - cows, chickens, and pigs [and plenty of other animals] have been slaughtered using such methods since we could record history - it isn’t going to make the world a horrible place if it continues.
 
Lisa44 said:
I read that article on BBC also. I think we shouldn’t eat animals at all because it is murder. We should be vegetarians or vegans.🙂

jesusveg.com/popular.html
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Sounds nice, but I like meat. Besides, what would we do with the animals otherwise? And what about the thousands, perhaps millions of extra unemployed people?
 
Neildown said:
Sounds nice, but I like meat. Besides, what would we do with the animals otherwise? And what about the thousands, perhaps millions of extra unemployed people?
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To say nothing of the fact that approximately 1/3 of the habitable globe is fit for grassland and nothing else. (Same is true of the U.S. itself) People can’t eat grass because the nutrients are locked up in cellulose which we can’t digest. If you take 1/3 of the land out of food production, particularly of high-quality protein food, you will cause a very serious deficit in the world food supply. Cattle and sheep, which can digest the cellulose, are God’s gift to mankind.

If the U.S. went vegan tomorrow, approximately 1/3 of the U.S. would very quickly teem with wild cattle, wild horses, buffalo, elk, antelope and other animals, along with their respective predators, including wolves, mountain lions, grizzly bears and so on. One would not want to even drive through such an area, let alone live there.
 
Neildown said:
That’s basically exactly what I said, but there’s one problem - some methods do essentially require the animal to feel some sort of pain. As for not eating meat - cows, chickens, and pigs [and plenty of other animals] have been slaughtered using such methods since we could record history - it isn’t going to make the world a horrible place if it continues.
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In the processing plants I have seen, the chickens are asleep when they’re killed. They arrive in a totally dark room where there is only black light so the workers can see them. But chickens can’t see anything in black light, and go into a sort of trance-like state immediately. They are then beheaded. The heart keeps pumping for a bit, which expels all their blood very quickly from their bodies. Most poultry plants’ processes are both halal and kosher without anybody intending it particularly.

Hogs are, indeed, stunned, by electricity. But Muslims and Jews don’t eat pork anyway. They are, indeed, exsanguinated, but it’s very, very fast; faster than one would think; a matter of seconds. When the blood leaves the brain, which it does almost immediately, there is no consciousness.
 
Ridgerunner said:
To say nothing of the fact that approximately 1/3 of the habitable globe is fit for grassland and nothing else. (Same is true of the U.S. itself) People can’t eat grass because the nutrients are locked up in cellulose which we can’t digest. If you take 1/3 of the land out of food production, particularly of high-quality protein food, you will cause a very serious deficit in the world food supply. Cattle and sheep, which can digest the cellulose, are God’s gift to mankind.

If the U.S. went vegan tomorrow, approximately 1/3 of the U.S. would very quickly teem with wild cattle, wild horses, buffalo, elk, antelope and other animals, along with their respective predators, including wolves, mountain lions, grizzly bears and so on. One would not want to even drive through such an area, let alone live there.
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That was another thing I was wondering too - you can’t eat grass like cattle so the only thing left would be to cultivate the entire country for growing vegetables - which would be a nightmare for veggie-haters for sure.

As for the gigantic reproduction rates, we’d basically have to keep all animals in zoos to accommodate that [though that would probably result in catastrophic effects on the environment]. Otherwise we’d still have to kill them over-producing in the wild! So that being said, why not just eat them and leave the grass where it is, right? 😃
 
Neildown said:
That was another thing I was wondering too - you can’t eat grass like cattle so the only thing left would be to cultivate the entire country for growing vegetables - which would be a nightmare for veggie-haters for sure.

As for the gigantic reproduction rates, we’d basically have to keep all animals in zoos to accommodate that [though that would probably result in catastrophic effects on the environment]. Otherwise we’d still have to kill them over-producing in the wild! So that being said, why not just eat them and leave the grass where it is, right? 😃
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Yup. And we learned in the Dust Bowl days, and Kruschev learned in the “Virgin Lands” program, that it’s not too smart to plow up the grasslands.
 
meltzerboy said:
My own feeling about this is we should not kill animals at all for food and instead become vegetarians or vegans. I realize I won’t make many friends on the Forum with such a bold statement (and certainly not among employers/employees in the meat industry or hunters), but that is my view.

For the purpose of full disclosure, I do eat chicken and fish (but not beef or pork) although rarely these days. .
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You do realize that such statements are…curious…in light of each other, no?
Lisa44 said:
I read that article on BBC also. I think we shouldn’t eat animals at all because it is murder. We should be vegetarians or vegans.🙂

jesusveg.com/popular.html
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Yet Jesus ate lamb at passover…
 
God made us stewards of the Earth in Genesis… He taught us to take care of Earth… This includes our animals… Stunning is the **ONLY **acceptable manner for ending the life of an animal who is to be consumed…
 
mro said:
God made us stewards of the Earth in Genesis… He taught us to take care of Earth… This includes our animals… Stunning is the **ONLY **acceptable manner for ending the life of an animal who is to be consumed…
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I don’t recall the Bible or the Church saying that - just don’t make it long and agonizing. [which can still be done in the Jewsih or Muslim methods]
 
It would be a kindness. Not divinely mandated, and therefore not obligatory, but a kindness none the less, and very much in accord with the love of God generally.
 
Neildown said:
Sounds nice, but I like meat. Besides, what would we do with the animals otherwise? And what about the thousands, perhaps millions of extra unemployed people?
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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.
 
Neildown said:
That’s basically exactly what I said, but there’s one problem - some methods do essentially require the animal to feel some sort of pain. As for not eating meat - cows, chickens, and pigs [and plenty of other animals] have been slaughtered using such methods since we could record history - it isn’t going to make the world a horrible place if it continues.
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It is , for those animals.
 
mro said:
God made us stewards of the Earth in Genesis… He taught us to take care of Earth… This includes our animals… Stunning is the **ONLY **acceptable manner for ending the life of an animal who is to be consumed…
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If they must die , let it be as painlessly as possible.
 
Neildown said:
I don’t recall the Bible or the Church saying that - just don’t make it long and agonizing. [which can still be done in the Jewsih or Muslim methods]
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Try the Catechism on needless suffering. Not stunning would be needless.
 
Remember that if God was this worried about animals as much as people seem to be today, he would have put these rules in the OT. The reason that Jews have to kill the way they do is because that is what the Bible tells them to do.

Pax :signofcross:
 
LemonAndLime said:
The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe took the position in 2002 that “the practice of slaughtering animals without prior stunning is unacceptable under any circumstances”
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Really? Are they going to provide me with the expensive equipment, training, and people to run it?

How is a farmer with only one or two cows or pigs going to live up to their standards?
 
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