Princess Alia bint Al Hussein is the sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan. She established the Princess Alia Foundation to promote respect towards all creation and to improve the lives of animals in the Middle East.
Inhumane slaughter puts Australia's reputation at riskJORDAN'S PRINCESS ALIA
November 2, 2009
AUSTRALIA is one of the few countries to consistently treat animals humanely during slaughter and its meat has gained wide acceptance in the Middle East as meeting halal standards. This is important in ensuring the acceptability of its meat exports to the Islamic world.
The thing that sets the Australian meat industry apart is that animals have been stunned and are unconscious before they are slaughtered.
But now Australia is considering lowering its standards. This is a great blow to all concerned with animal welfare. Such a decision will harm Australia's reputation, will hamper efforts to have stunning more broadly accepted in the Middle East and could encourage other Middle Eastern importers to request non-stunned meat. This would be disastrous from an animal welfare perspective as imported Australian halal stunned meat is undoubtedly the most humanely produced meat available to consumers in the Middle East.
I have written to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expressing my concerns. I believe the Prime Minister has a genuine interest in animal welfare, as we have previously corresponded over the matter of an inhumane restraining device for inverting cattle (which was donated to Jordan by Meat & Livestock Australia).
He understood my concerns and the Rudd Government replaced this device and funded humane restraining and stunning equipment for both sheep and cattle. This has greatly improved the situation in my country, Jordan - for the animals, workers and consumers. It would be a great shame therefore if the Government now lowered its standards to permit the animal suffering that results from non-stunned slaughter.
Contrary to some claims, killing without stunning is not necessary under Islamic principles. I say this based on several fatwas and extensive discussions with the Islamic authorities who are qualified to pronounce upon such matters.
The only proscription is to actually kill an animal before cutting its throat, which is why penetrative stunning is not allowed. Percussion and electrical stunning have been developed and refined and, when properly used, are both reliable and reversible.
Failure to understand this makes some Muslims reject stunning. Rather than giving in to pressure, surely the intelligent - and responsible - thing is to educate them on this matter.
The ethical treatment of animals is very much a part of Islamic teachings. Young animals should not be taken away from their mothers too early, causing undue distress, nor should animals be subjected to harsh treatment. They are described as being ''nations such as yourselves'', an acknowledgment of their sentience that has been part of Islam for more than 1500 years. (The European Union only officially recognised this in 1999.)
With regard to slaughter specifically, Muslims are told to ''lead them in a beautiful way''. Animals are not to be pulled or pushed, they are not to be mutilated, nor slaughtered in front of each other and never shown the knife to be used for slaughter; that way, little or no indication is given of what is about to happen. They are not supposed to have their legs tied or feet restrained while being slaughtered. They must be offered a drink of water before slaughter and the instrument must be extremely sharp to ensure one clean cut.
Islam even specifies which arteries are to be severed and modern science confirms that this requirement causes maximum loss of blood in the minimum time.
In addition, it is specified that a ''concussed'' animal - such as an animal having had an accident and been rendered unconscious - is considered halal to slaughter.
Many in the Middle East consume imported Australian meat as it is considered halal. However, given these clear religious teachings, this could change if non-stunned slaughter is accepted in Australia.
Arguments, often put forward by Muslims, that Islam is not concerned with animal welfare show a lack of knowledge of our religion and our intrinsic culture. When Islam's guidelines on the matter were set, those who established and upheld them were neither more affluent nor under less pressure than people are today.
A conscious decision to cause an animal pain is in essence a loss of humanity as we bear the responsibility to behave in a respectful and humane way towards all God's creatures, humans or otherwise. A lack of sensitivity towards animals too often leads to a lack of sensitivity towards each other. This respect and sensitivity is what makes us human.
There is obviously a great deal of work to be done to improve the welfare of animals in the Middle East and to encourage treatment that reflects true Islamic principles.
This can be assisted when countries such as Australia lead the way in ensuring animal welfare by enshrining standards of care in legislation.
Reducing those standards to permit animals to be slaughtered while fully conscious may meet the personal preferences of a minority but is not an example that will inspire change, nor encourage the acceptance of pre-slaughter stunning in the Middle East.
