Boreal

FADE TO BLACK

Triumph of the Irrational

Animal Cruelty Becomes the Norm

The triumph of Islam will mean vegetarians will no longer be able to abstain from eating meat without risking being labelled a non-believer and a world of hurt for animals whose flesh is destined to satiate the hunger of believers.

Three women approached the Prophet one day. One of them said, “O Prophet! My husband has shunned the company of his wife.”

The second said, “My husband has stopped eating meat!”

The third said, “My husband has stopped using perfume!”

Hearing the women, the Prophet was upset. He saw that misguided ideas were beginning to take root amongst his followers.

Although it was not the time for any mandatory prayer, he proceeded to the mosque. He went in such a great hurry that even his cloak was not properly placed on his shoulder and one end of it was touching the ground.

He ordered the people to assemble in the mosque.

People rushed there leaving aside their tasks.

The Prophet ascended the pulpit and said,” I have heard that my companions are getting wrong ideas.”

He added, “I am Allah’s Messenger, I eat meat and delicious food! I wear good clothes! I wear perfumes and keep the company of my wives and have conjugal relations with them! Whosoever opposes my ways is not my follower!”

The Prophet has repeated this sentence on several occasions: "One who does not adopt my ways is not a Muslim".

Wasa'il al-Shia book of hadith

What the risk of being perceived as an non-believer entails:

Narrated Abdullah bin Masud:

The Prophet recited Suratan-Najm (103) at Mecca and prostrated while reciting it and those who were with him did the same except an old man who took a handful of small stones or earth and lifted it to his forehead and said, "This is sufficient for me."

Later on, I saw him killed as a non-believer.

Bukhari 19.173

Islam has yet to reach a critical mass in most Western countries when it will be in a position to demand that meat from animals tortured to death be available everywhere animal flesh is sold or on the menu. That has not stopped supermarkets and restaurant chains from KFC to pizza joints from jumping on the halal bandwagon and offering meat and meat by-products from livestock painfully put to death.

How Much Pain and Suffering?

In its March 8, 2012 edition, Le Point, the popular mainstream French (France) weekly published excerpts from a confidential government report prepared by Le Conseil général de alimentation, de l’agriculture et des espaces ruraux sur La protection animale en abattoir; la question particulière de l’abattoir rituel (Animal Protection In Slaughterhouses: The Question of Ritual Slaughter, my translation).

The excerpts reveals that during 2010, 2,068,439 cattle, 382,460 calves, 2,568,444 sheep and 35,713 goats were ritually slaughtered i.e. the animal was not rendered unconscious before having its throat cut and left to bleed to death while restrained.

The longest time reported for an animal to die while fully conscious was eleven minutes for calves, followed by six minutes for cattle and five minutes for sheep. No agony time was available for goats.

Under the heading Intensité et durée de la douleur: souffrance (Intensity and duration of the pain: suffering) the report goes on to describe the type of pain a ritually slaughtered animal experiences. It’s not for the squeamish. Again, the translation is mine, as are explanatory comments surrounded by round brackets ().

The pain that a conscious animal experiences at the time of its throat being slit is assumed to be intense…

To be able to compare different method of slaughter as to the amount of pain they cause, we must take into account the visible signs that permit us to gage the intensity of the pain experienced by the conscious animals… The amount of pain will vary depending on the type of animal.

A slit throat is in itself painful:

• The incision provokes a nociceptive reaction (“pain caused by stimulation of peripheral nerve fibers that respond only to stimuli approaching or exceeding harmful intensity” Wiki) causing extreme pain;

• the contraction of the muscle at the point of the incision has to be extremely painful;

• blood will fill the lungs provoking a sensation of drowning...

The length of time it takes for an animal (that has not been stunned) to become unconscious is a result of many factors:

• the constriction of the arteries compensates for the loss of blood and causes an increase in the heart rate;

• where cattle is concerned, the vertebral arteries are not cut when the incision is done …; different anastomosis (channels) between the vertebral and cervical arteries allow the vertebral arteries to continue bringing blood to the brain even after the carotid artery has been cut;

• other factors may contribute to the time an animal remains conscious e.g. a clot in the carotid artery...

Rendering an animal unconscious is both the beginning and the end of its suffering when conventional methods are used. In the ritual slaughter of an animal, unconsciousness comes much later.

During this period, which varies among types of animals, the animal, in a conscious state, will be subjected to many painful procedures, some related to the incision made by the person performing the sacrifice, others by the stop and go (“saccadé”) nature of the ritual.

Why the Suffering?

Modern, non-ritual slaughtering methods use what is commonly referred to as a captive bolt pistol to render the animal unconscious “to prevent the pain and suffering of the animal during the bleeding (exsanguination) process (which is itself necessary to prevent meat spoilage) during butchering. The principle behind captive bolt stunning is a forceful strike on the forehead using a bolt to induce unconsciousness.”Wiki

Except for at the Hajj, there are no verses in the Koran that demand an animal, whose meat is destined for a believer’s table, must be tortured to death. Blame the example of Muhammad.

Narrated Anas:

The Prophet slaughtered seven Budn (camel) with his own hands while the camels were standing. He also sacrificed two horned rams (black and white in color) at Medina.

Bukhari 26.772

Narrated Zaid bin Jubair:

I saw Ibn Umar passing by a man who had made his Badana (sacrifce) sit to slaughter it.

Ibn Umar said, "Slaughter it while it is standing with one leg tied up as is the tradition of Muhammad."

Bukhari 26.771

Narrated Abaya bin Rifaa:

My grandfather asked (the Prophet), "We hope (or are afraid) that we may meet the enemy tomorrow and we have no knives. Can we slaughter our animals with canes?"

Allah's Apostle replied, "If the instrument used for killing causes the animal to bleed profusely and if Allah's Name is mentioned on killing it, then eat its meat (i.e. it is lawful) but won't don't use a tooth or a nail and I am telling you the reason: A tooth is a bone (and slaughtering with a bone is forbidden), and a nail is the slaughtering instrument of the Ethiopians."

Bukhari 52.309

Muhammad insisted that an animal "bleed profusely" for its meat to be lawful to eat because in his day the fastest and simplest way to ascertain if an animal that showed no obvious signs of life was actually dead was to cut its throat. If blood flowed in sufficient quantity from the cut, the animal, after it had bled to dead, could be butchered and eaten.

Malik was asked about a sheep which fell down and injured itself badly and then its master reached it and slaughtered it. Blood flowed from it but it did not move.

Malik said, "If he kills it and blood flows from it and its eyes blink, he should eat it."

Malik’s Muwatta 24.3.7

God's spokesman was explaining to Dark Age simpletons, who depended on scriptures that were a reflection of the beliefs and superstitions of the Age, how to avoid eating carrion which the Koran prohibited. He offered an illiterate’s rational solution for the time in which he lived. That was then, this is now and today it is irrational for animals to die writhing in agony because people believe they must strive to emulate every action of a Dark Ages illiterate whom their religion considers the embodiment of the perfect human being.

In modern Western slaughterhouses the animal is rejected if it is not alive and well and cannot make it onto “the killing floor” with only prodding, where it will be stunned into unconsciousness so that it will not feel the horrific pain of its throat being cut then bleeding to death. This care to ensure that an animal is alive but unconscious before being bled—along with someone to extend thanks to Allah for His generosity—should meet halal requirement, unless it’s all about the pain.