My knowledge on animal slaughter is not exhaustive, but I can state the following.
The Jewish rationale for kosher meat is as follows:
God accepts that many of his creatures make suitable food for Mankind. God insists that any killing is necessary for food and must be painless for the animal concerned. To comply with this instruction the Jews have developed a method of killing. The knife used by the slaughter man must be razor sharp. The length and weight of the knife must be proportional to the size of the animal. The slaughter man must employ a firm quick deep stroke to sever the main artery in the neck to immediately starve the brain of blood and function. A seven-year training is considered necessary to do this properly.
As in the human body, a graze along the skin can be considerably more painful that a deep cut because more nerve endings are damaged, yet the consequences of a graze are trivial, whereas a deep cut can be fatal.
The Jews insist that their method combines minimal nerve damage with maximum blood loss and rapid brain death.
The Jews are also aware that if an animal is panicked prior to slaughter, it produces hormones that combine with the blood and infuse the meat having a detrimental effect on its taste and consistency.
Accordingly, they go to some lengths to handle animals gently and reduce noise and sudden movements.
The Jews maintain that the noise and urgent activity associated with conventional fast throughput abattoir creates an element of stress. They also point out that the stunning operation further increases stress and can, and occasionally does, go wrong.
From what I have seen in abattoirs, I accept they have a point. In order to stun an animal, it first needs to be handled. Animals strongly resist being handled. Anyone who has dosed cattle or sheep with a “worm gun” will concur that whilst what they are doing is the animal’s best interest, the animal does not understand this concept and can react very violently. Restraining the animal and placing the stunning electrodes over the animal’s head without alarming it takes considerable skill and no one is perfect.
I have argued with the Jewish lobbyists that whilst their method was the best possible for animal welfare 2,000 years ago, modern technology could now improve the situation and it is their duty adopt such technology. They are adamant that their method is still the best in this respect.
The Muslims require non-stun slaughter for a completely different reason. They insist that the last sounds an animal hears before death are the prayers murmured over it as it dies. The key word here is “hears”. Some Muslims are content that the hearing is not necessary, as long as the prayers are intoned as death takes place, and the prayers are said by a suitably religiously qualified individual. In this circumstance such Muslims do not object to stunning.
A compromise ‘low voltage stunning’ is apparently available now. I have not witnessed this in an abattoir, so have no personal experience. It could however result in the worst of both worlds as the stress of the handling is not diminished, but the stunning is only partial. At present, an exemption to the law allows Jews and Muslims to eat non-stunned meat.
This privilege is being widely abused in the case of Halal meat, which is generally available for sale in retail outlets, and although often labelled as such, there is no attempt by Retailers to check the religion of the customer.
Halal killing is easier for the operators of abattoirs as well as the time, stress and expense of stunning is bypassed.
Looking at what Richard Tilbrook has written about this, I agree in principle, but he infers that Halal meat can be legally purchased from poorly regulated abattoirs. Any meat purchased in the UK must be slaughtered in licensed premises. All licensed premises are relentlessly inspected.
He may be referring to illegal back yard killing, which is an increasing problem, but such meat avoids conventional retail outlets and as such is unlikely to be consumed by non-Muslims. A parallel illegal food chain is now in operation where animals are stolen, their ID tags removed and then carelessly killed with blunt knives in unlicensed premises, and transported in unhygienic conditions and retailed in un-inspected shops.
This activity will escalate dramatically if we ban non-stun meat.
Policing will be difficult and will rely on well rewarded informants and penalties so severe as to act as a genuine deterrent. I would envisage a special police squad staffed by those who are highly motivated by this issue. They should be aware that they and their families may be subjected to terrorist attack.
A zero-tolerance policy must be adopted from day one. Grassland farms purchased by Muslims are obvious places of interest for this new police squad. If we back down or falter on this, animal welfare will be the principal casualty.
Making exceptions to our law has created a very serious precedent. Those exempted are given this privilege because they hold a certain opinion, not because they are physically incapacitated. A religion is an opinion. An opinion should not be a valid reason to break the law.