Halal Slaughter

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Joe M. Regenstein Professor of Food Science Head: Cornell Kosher Food Initiative Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-7201 Jmr9@cornell.edu Food Science July 26, 2007 

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An American Professor of Food Science Have spent about 30 years working on religious foods issues: Writing, Speaking, Doing Member of the FMI/NCCR Animal Welfare Technical Committee Technical advisor to IFANCA Colleague of Dr. Temple Grandin Teach Kosher and Halal Food Regulations at: Cornell, Kansas State (DL) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (DL) 

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It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. Audre Lorde 

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We need to recognize that we can disagree about ethics, I.e., we cannot always agree on what is right and what is wrong, even if we are all ETHICAL ‏از لكا‎ We must remember that we each bring our own ideas and background to ethics and to slaughter. We need to think more broadly to incorporate new ideas and educate ourselves. 

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Those who cannot change their minds ‏مصنطوهه موصقطه امصصعه‎ George Bernard Shaw 

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The responsibility to treat animals properly is an ethical responsibility for all of us involved in animal agriculture. We need to address the issues using rational arguments and reasoning. Religious slaughter needs to be fairly evaluated. The null hypothesis should be the starting point, i.e., that un- stunned slaughter and slaughter with ehinning are equally himane 

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ی ت۱۹ ‎community as to how to slaughter. Some will‏ ‎permit light tree will not. Some‏ ‎will permit upright ughter others will not.‏ l ethically define my task as working with each of these communities to evaluate and then ‏ل ی‎ eee ‏كنا‎ 6ط مغ 15 تجاتلتطتعصم مودعم 00 م ‎to work with us 0 reach that goal.‏ 00 ‎Rant after that level is achieved, can we‏ 2 فصتعمصم: از ‎begin to consider Beers ae‏ ‎joao) NL creamer an U Havana Tei ParS Ue fcc ys RHEL)‏ ‎problem.)‏ 

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Philosophy, like morality itself, is the first and last an exercise in reason - the ideas that should come out on top are the ones that have the best reasons on their sides. Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 1999. p. Xii 

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If something specific is wrong with animal agriculture, like slaughter, specifically religious slaughter, what does that mean? 1. We should work hard to correct the specific problem? Yes 2. It is proof that slaughter should not exist and, therefore, we should promote veganism? Traditional stunning? No There certainly are things wrong with animal agriculture, including with religious slaughter, so let us work on correcting them. 

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Believe Nothing That You [ ‏اعاصظ‎ 

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Allows one to isolate the various factors that are involved in affecting a process Can critically evaluate the scientific contribution of each factor to the net outcome Can then focus on correcting the most critical factors, which would also would need to reflect policy considerations In my opinion this has been poorly done for religious slaughter! (And also for regular slaughter). Which effects reflect the slaughter, which reflect the animal handling, and which reflect the equipment? 

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A critical look process of slaughtering and animal handling that helps to identify the factors that need to be considered The earlier steps are identical to those used in non-Religious slaughter - and the same problems may occur 

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Absence of injury Appropriate provisions of feed and water Proper consideration of the impact of ambient temperature, humidity, wind conditions and in-transit conditions faced by animals during transport Compatibility of the animals within a load Goal: Presenting an acceptable animal to the slaughter facility 

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Appropriate provisions of feed and water Proper temperature Absence of mud Again a need to look at the impact of temperature, humidity, wind, noise, lighting, group dynamics, breed, animal age etc. Goal: Maintain healthy calm animals 

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Proper animal handling practices Absence or minimal use of electric prods Proper design and maintenance of ‏ظآ1‎ 015 Avoidance of distractions Goal: Animals should proceed to slaughter calmly without hesitation 

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Not used for religious slaughter Current suggested U.S. expectations (FMI/NCCR and AMI) require 95% of the animals to be stunned on the first ‏رن‎ Need to study the state of animals that are missed on the first try - both animals that are calm and those that may not be so calm because they were, for example, electrically prodded 

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Animals should continue to be handled well Pens should be constructed to help calm the animal Facilities need to be designed and maintained properly with attention to ‏6لنعا06‎ Personnel should be properly trained in their tasks Goal: Optimize the potential of the slaughter method 

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The slaughterman should be properly trained The knife used should be of the proper size and shape The knife used should be properly sharpened The slaughterman should cut the animal in the proper place The animals neck should be extended properly- not too taunt or too lose The cut should be done aggressively so that the animal bleeds profusely and drops quickly, avoiding aneurisms 

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Any subsequent cut for further bleed- out shall be done quickly and ۱9۹۸ The animal shall not otherwise be handled until it is insensible 

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“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." Daniel Patrick Moynihan Former U.S. senator 

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If all the steps are done properly, the animal should be expected to be insensible: we might want to suggest that is less than 20 seconds. If the animal is NOT insensible by the suggested 20 seconds then a post-slaughter stun should be used, even if this requires that the animal no longer meets religious requirements. Meat plants doing religious slaughter must be prepared to sell meat that does not meet the religious requirements into other markets. 

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“Recently, I participated in a ritual kosher slaughter -- in this ritual, the way it was meant to be done, I must CENA MOM CM Lari Eelam ‏ل‎ ae) management really understood the importance and significance of what they were doing, and communicated this to their employees -- and to the animals as well, I believe. As each steer entered the kosher restraining box, I manipulated the controls to gently position the animal. 

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After some practice, I learned that the animals would stand quietly and not resist being restrained if I eased the chin-lift up under the animal’s chin. Jerking the controls or causing the apparatus to make sudden movements made the cattle jump... Some cattle were held so loosely by the head-holder and the rear pusher gate that they could easily have pulled away from the rabbi’s knife. I was relieved and surprised to discover that the animals don’t even feel the super-sharp blade as it touches their skin. They made no attempt: to pull away. I felt peaceful and calm.” (Regenstein and Grandin 1992) 

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7 علطن 15 نأقطاتالا ‎Is the agenda really to do good science‏ ‎and trying to improve the slaughter‏ ‎consistent with people’s religious‏ ‎requirements?‏ My agenda: to get a fair and objective scientific evaluation of both religious and non-religious slaughter. For those items that are un-satisfactory, we need to work with the plants to fix the problems. 

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the continued total ban on religious slaughter in Sweden: They observed the worst upside down pen (Weinberg) - N=1; never considered banning the pen? . They Nettie out that much of the kosher slaughtered meat in Sweden is sold to entiles (non-Jews); never considered abeling such meat? تاوباز 10 1 Therefore, for these two reasons alone, Sweden is justified in continuing to ban religious slaughter Is this science or an agenda? I do not think this is science but rather an embarrassment and an anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim agenda at x 

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Need to study a Temple Grandin compliant plant with really good religious slaughter and see what the status of that plant is (and I do believe that even these plants can be improved.) And then: Certain practices (not religious slaughter itself) may need to be banned, e.g., shackling and hoisting and the Weinberg pen (see the Royal Veterinary Society of Sweden statement on slaughter discussed above!) 

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What do animals feel with each of the different slaughter methods when done right? When not done right? How do we deal with these two different situations of right and wrong? In each case when is the animal “dead” or insensible”? (I prefer to think in terms of insensible - as a measurable expectation.) How does the possibility that an animal is unconscious but not insensible get dealt with? 

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What aspects of the religious slaughter process are due to the inherent nature of a particular religious slaughter (or standard slaughter) and what is subject to improvement through good management, training of religious personnel, proper use of technology, and technology improvement? 

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۱۳۱۰۱۱۵۵۰۱۰۱۰۱ What is reasonable? This is policy not science 15 to 20 seconds seems to be on most peoples’ list as a satisfactory expectation and reflects an animal that becomes unconscious even sooner and bleeds out properly This criteria CAN regularly be met by religious slaughter with proper equipment, proper training, and proper handling of the animals 

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If the policy is not met - it should be required that a post- slaughter stunning be done after, for example, 30 sec even if it makes the product unacceptable religiously (again the actual time is a policy issue) 

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With normal stunning procedures - if the animal is not stunned on the first try, it is extremely stressful. Sometimes it takes as many as 6 tries to eventually stun the animal. The new AMI (American Meat Institute) expectation, as also accepted by the FMI (Food Marketing Institute, supermarkets)/NCCR (National Council of Chain Restaurants) Animal Welfare Technical Committee that I will discuss shortly still permit 5% of the animals to be “missed” on the first try! 

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Can one really determine how the religious slaughter was done reading the literature? Can one really determine how the time to insensibility and death is affected by improper handling and poor handling equipment from that which is inherent in well done religious and standard slaughter? I would suggest that the literature does not meet the standard of sufficient information so the experiment can be repeated or the data cleanly interpreted, which is surprising for such important questions - if objective scientific answers were really desired? 

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There are many currently operating religious slaughter systems that do NOT meet the modern expectation of animal welfare, but there are also some that we believe do. Those that do not should not be accepted if the measurements reported suggest that these are out of control - but the extrapolation to all religious slaughter is inappropriate until good measurements are made and reproduced on the best available systems. A proper test of the null hypothesis is needed, i.e., religious slaughter is as humane as any other modern approved slaughter system. 

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An understanding of the process by which “endorphins” (opiates) function in animals at the time of slaughter The role of the sharp cut in optimizing endorphin release and of the animals “stress” state Objective criteria for measuring/evaluating the quality of religious slaughter and of other slaughter - can we develop a set of criteria for humane slaughter, and when in each process is the animal dead or insensible. 

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Detailed animal physiology, biochemical, and behavioral measurements on a system where during religious slaughter animals are becoming insensible in 15 seconds or less. More information about animals from stunning (or missed-stunning) to bleed- out with conventional systems. In ALL cases the details of the system studied need to be reported. 

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A discussion to begin to define the set of criteria that need to be reported about the animals, the plant, the equipment, the animal handling, and the actual slaughter so as to be able to evaluate the actual slaughter observed. (We have started on such a document.) A discussion to begin to define which measurements are “meaningful” for looking at slaughter and how those measurements should be carried out. 

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This country [or any country?] will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a ols ses a to live 2-2 Roosevelt 

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The FMI/NCCR (Food Marketing Institute/National Council of Chain Restaurants) has undertaken to create kosher and halal slaughter guidelines, based on AMI (American Meat Institute) expectations. The current AMI guidelines were recently changed to permit a well done upside-down religious slaughter to qualify as it is required by some groups in the religious community. 

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As part of Cornell’s Northeast Sheep and Goat Program, we have tested a commercially available Muslim slaughter knife and subsequently developed a new knife, have developed a restraining pen that should cost less than $1000, and developed a multi- lingual instruction poster that will permit individual Muslims to do halal slaughter consistent with modern animal welfare expectations. (Currently available in English, Arabic, Persian, TIrdi Somali Malay Turkich and 

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Acceptable Knife That is Commercially Available 

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یو( و 2 ع 2 oe 

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اسر نار دک رو از مرک گنر سر و سنا تس سره رگد از زور یکی وقوار مزر رت زر تدر ياوا ‎Bag an‏ هر له وق رز امنهار دنه هرب ‎٠0090000‏ دس يمع كرظن 

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It is my personal belief that in the future the most humane slaughter may well be religious slaughter. All research on the issue of religious slaughter (as opposed to evaluating a particular situation) needs to be done on a system that is operating properly and provides the best possible condition for slaughter - only then can the potential of religious slaughter be properly evaluated. Hopefully then we can have a open- minded scientifically-based discussion. 

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These references attempt to present an overview of the science of un-stunned slaughter from a pro-religious slaughter point of view Levinger, Levinger and Monk: Shechitah Levinger Rosen: Article in the Vet Record A book discussing of some of the issues of halal slaughter although not focused on the technical issues being discussed in this presentation The Islamic Method of Slaughter 

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For further information, please contact Joe M. Regenstein at jmr9@cornell.edu: Copies of this PowerPoint talk, the Spirit of Humane brochure, and the Humane (Halal) poster are available from him with no charge. Also there is a comprehensive paper on kosher and halal at www.ift.org; go to publications; go to on-line journals; go to Comprehensive Reviews in Food. Science and Food Safety; volume 2 issue 3. For either a kosher/halal talk or an animal welfare talk, go to www.cybertower.cornell.edu and log in. For a 2 credit distance learning course on kosher and halal food regulations go to the Kansas State University (www.ksu.edu) distance learning program in food science.