The Captive Bolt Pistol
Used commonly for cattle, calves and goats. It is the shooting, by a gun or pistol in the forehead (mechanical method) by a blank cartridge or compressed air. It could be penetrating or non-penetrating (percussion stunning). It breaks the skull, shatters and destroys the brain. A rod of steel is introduced in the skull hole to smash, cut and destroy the brain. All this occurs before the real slaughtering cut is made. Recently, a new method by which a steel needle to penetrate the skull and brain and in which air is injected to cause inter-cranial pressure has been developed.
Problems & Harms:
1) Improper stunning (failure of stunning leading to re-stunning and double shots;
2) Paralysis of the animal while still conscious;
3) Depressed skull fracture' and considerable damage to the brain;
4) Brain contamination;
5) Blood splash (seeping of blood from vessels into muscle and meat with some clotting of the blood);
6) Brain hemorrhage;
7) Bruising and injuries from the heavy fall of the animal after the shot;
8) Death: Tests on sheep and calves indicated that penetrating captive bolt stunning actually kills the animal;
9) Damage or harm to the meat.
Carbon Dioxide (Co2)
It is done by moving the animal through a room which contains a mixture of C02 and air (about 65/70% C02 by volume). It is used only for pigs. It is a form of chemical strangulation. C02 is a harmful gas to be inside the body.
Problems & Harms:
1) Considerable, unacceptable stress (violent excitation, general agitation and convulsions).
2) Suffocation, strangulation and death to the animal before the cut;
3) Toxic effect of the gas on the blood and physiology.
It is definitely a cruel way for the animal This method has been banned in Holland and many other European countries.
Electrical Stunning
It could be to the head and brain only or to head and back or to the legs, and there are three varieties:
Low Voltage Electrical
Stunning: by a pair of scissors-like tongs with circular or rectangular electrodes which are usually immersed in a saline solution then applied to the side of the head. Voltage is not less than 75 volts (50 Hz mains frequency) for not less than seven seconds.
Problem & Harms:
1) It is cruel, by giving an electric shock directly, with no anesthesia;
2) Paralysis while the animal is conscious(pain);
3) Unreliable: missed shots and re-stunning;
4) Recovery of the animal usually occurs within 30-40 seconds
5) Electric stunning only induces paralysis, not unconsciousness, leaving the animal helpless but completely conscious to pain.
Some scientists and physiologists have expressed serious misgivings; some are of the opinion that the animal is merely paralyzed by the electric current and so prevented from making a sound or a movement while fully conscious and experiences great pain as the current passes through its body.
An excerpt from the petition of the Meat Packers in Denmark to the Danish Government says:- "Stunning with electricity causes extravasations in the meat, sanguinary intestines and fractures in the spinal column, pelvis, shoulder blades through the shock. The blood in the meat makes it more susceptible to putrefaction and has detrimental effect on taste."
High Voltage Electric Stunning:
By using an electric shock of 300-400 volts, commonly used for pigs and sheep:
Problems and harms with this method:
1) It is very cruel by giving a high electric shock (electrocution to a conscious animal).
2) cardiac inhibition, cardiac dysfunction, cardiac arrest and death;
3) Bone-shattering; Stress High level of blood splashing in the carcass;
4) Pain and sensation;
Electrified Water Bath for Poultry Stunning
The birds are suspended on the shackle (upside down) then the head is intended to come into contact with the water and the passage of an electric shock through the brain'.
Problems & Harm:
1) A very cruel way to give the electric shock, especially in this uncomfortable position;
2) Drowning and suffocation resulting in death;
3) It was well-documented that some birds were taken still alive to the scalding tank (to remove the skin and feathers)
4) Death from the stunner; Paralysis by failure of stunning
Rulings On Imported Meat
Clearly, animals killed in this manner do not fulfill the condition of slaughtered meat that is permissible for the consumption of Muslims. The question that may bother us is the permissibility of imported meat (beef, chicken etc.).
The general rule regarding the slaughtered meat of the People of the Book is permissibility until clear and unambiguous evidence changes that. Based on this principle, all halaal meat imported from countries predominantly Ahlul-Kitab would be permissible unless a particular batch of meat is known to have contravened the Islamic provision for Halaal meat.
However, if this is not known with clear knowledge, it is not necessary to investigate, rather, such meat may be eaten. If the doubt is preponderant, one may then avoid such meat as a precautionary measure. Nevertheless, one should be careful not to make haraam what Allaah has made Halaal.
By the same token, meat imported from predominantly idol worshipping countries like India or China would not be permissible for consumption except it is known with clear knowledge to have come from areas of such countries that are predominantly Muslims. And Allaah knows best!