1. business and industrial
2. agriculture and forestry
3. livestock

Improving Slaughter
without stunning
Establishing best practice
from an Islamic & scientific perspective
Rizvan Khalid
30-April-2015
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Agenda
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Background
Islamic requirement for Ihsan (perfection)
Experience in Sheep
Cattle & Poultry observations
Potential for Kosher diversion into Halal market
Welfare Labelling Considerations
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Background
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Euro Quality Lambs (EQL) is the largest Muslim-owned
lamb slaughterhouse in Europe. Primarily exportorientated.
 We supply Halal lamb both EHOS (electric head-only
stunned) and TRS (traditional religious slaughter without
stunning) depending on customer requirements
 I’m senior director with an MSc Distinction in Meat
Science & Technology. My dissertation on the bleeding
of Halal lamb following TRS, EHOS & PCEHOS (postcut) is in the final stage of publication
 Heavily involved in Halal industry development &
standards. This presentation is about sharing experience
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and identifying future priorities.
Islamic requirement for
Ihsan (Perfection)
“Verily Allah (swt) has prescribed Ihsan
(perfection, excellence, proficiency) in all
things. So if you kill then kill well; and if
you slaughter, then slaughter well. Let
each one of you sharpen his blade and let
him spare suffering to the animal he
slaughters”
Authority of Abu Ya’la Shaddad bin Aws
Sahih Muslim, 40 Hadith Nawawi 17
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Sheep
• From an operational & welfare priority perspective
sheep are anatomically the best animal to slaughter
without stunning
• Research & Practical Experience with Sheep
– Time to unconsciousness
• (2-7s – Newhook & Blackmore 1982, FAWC)
– Time to brain death (VER)
• (approx 14s – Wotton & Gregory 1984, HSA)
– Time to cessation of heart beat
• (more than 10 mins – Newhook & Blackmore 1982)
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What do we aim for?
• Best Pre-Slaughter Handling System Possible
– Systematically designed for better/easier sheep flow
– Operator training & positioning (take advantage of flocking)
– Human intervention primarily to slow/stop animals rather than
man-handling them to move into position (minimised)
– Access to water [hadith]
– Motorised crowd pen installed (EBLEX research - least stressful)
• Best restraint: V-restrainer
– Easy entry (takes advantage of natural flocking behaviour)
– Optimal restraint, feet off ground, works to any size, animal
relaxes
– Good slaughter-man access to head & neck
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Slaughtering
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Sharp slaughter knife [Ihsan hadith]
Not sharpening in front of the animal [‘do not kill animal twice’]
Not slaughtering an animal in front of another animal [hadith]
Slaughterman facing Qiblah [hadith]
Use full blade to make deep slice to carotid arteries [min 3/4]
Tasmiya [‘In the name of God. God is Great.’]
Correct length of blade [aim for 1 cut]
Ergonomic slaughter knife handle
Moveable platforms to adjust working height of slaughterman
to make better & easier cut
• Practice, training & continual fine-tuning. Time & Motion
studies to make easier for slaughterman.
• Individuals have different preferences on what’s easier for
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them! Customise!
Way forward
• Significant research already out there
– Develop, share & promote best practice guidelines to
move industry forward
– Develop best-practice slaughter without stunning standard
• Future research potential
– Slaughter knife sharpness training & assessment
– Slaughter knife manufacturing design for ergonomics and
maintaining edge better and longer
– Investigate if increased or reduced heart-beat allows faster
time to unconsciousness
– Strategic use of hearing (nature mood music?), smell,
colours & vision to put animal at ease
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Cattle
• Main animal of concern as longer time to
unconsciousness due to vertebral artery not being
cut during neck-cut (Zabh)
• Nahr (chest/thoracic cut) permissible in Islam
– Predominately used for camels but can be used for cattle
• Unconsciousness can be achieved significantly
quicker if done correctly
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Nahr (Chest/Thoracic Stick)
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Other Potential Improvements
• Nahr not possible for Kosher slaughter
• Position of Zabh (neck-cut)
– Move closer to jaw, C1 position (Gregory work)
• Slaughter in lateral recumbancy position (90 deg)
– Pesenhofer et al (2006) found cattle foot-trimmed in lateral
recumbancy position were significantly less stressed than in
upright position
– Easier to make neck cut for slaughterman (sideways motion)
– Potential for blood to be angled away from respiratory tract
reducing blood aspiration concerns
– In UK regularly used on-farm but illegal for religious slaughter
due to catch-all ban on 180 degree inversion at slaughter?
– Something that should be facilitated in UK legislation as EU
WATOK 1099/2009 specifically allows for new scientific findings11
Poultry
• Restraint crucial
– How to avoid live-shackling?
– Is cone-system better?
– Breast conveyor underneath shackle line second best
option?
• Slaughtering
– Presentation of neck & head
– Practical difficulties of reciting Tasmiya on every bird
• Post-slaughtering quality
– Excessive flapping affects meat quality
– PCEHOS at set-time could minimise?
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Working with Kosher
• Traditionally slaughtered Halal meat fully utilised in
market but more issues with Kosher
• Potential to divert Kosher into Halal market
– Islamically permitted
– Is currently happening
• Difference of Tasmiya can be overcome
– Shochet recite ‘In the name of God of Abraham/Moses’ on
each Kosher slaughter
– Witnessed by Muslim shackler
• Allows traditional religious slaughtered meat to be
fully utilised within the Halal and Kosher market
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Welfare Labelling Considerations
• Current welfare labelling discussions are narrowly
focused on slaughter only, with potential for
discrimination
• Welfare is for life not just for slaughter
• Research needed to objectively benchmark and crosscompare welfare ‘insults’ over the life of the animal (e.g.
ear-tagging, castration, tail-docking , slaughtering
with/without stunning etc.)
• Incorporating this research into a whole-of-life welfare
labelling model, such as the
www.globalanimalpartnership.org 5-step Animal Welfare
Rating Standards, offers potential for non-discriminatory
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whole-of-life welfare labelling
References
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Gregory, N.G., & Wotton, S.B. (1984). Sheep slaughtering procedures 2:
Time to loss of brain responsiveness after exsanguinations or cardiac
arrest. British Veterinary Journal, 140, 354-360.
Newhook, J.C., & Blackmore, D.K. (1982). Electroencephalographic
studies of stunning and slaughter of sheep and calves: Part 1 – The onset
of permanent insensibility in sheep during slaughter. Meat Science, 6, 221233.
Pesenhofer, G., Palme, R., Pesenhofer, R.M. & Kofler, J. (2006).
Ecomparison of two methods of fixation during functional claw trimming –
walk-in crush versus tilt table – in dairy cows using faecal cortisol metabolite
concentrations and daily milk yield as parameters. Vet. Med. Austria, 93,
288-294.
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QUESTIONS
rizvan@euroqualitylambs.co.uk
www.euroqualitylambs.co.uk
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