<Home> <Health-an Islamic Perspective> <Islamic Ruling on Animal Slaughter> <Electrical Stunning and Pain>

Health an Islamic Perspective

Islamic Ruling on Animal Slaughter

[ Contents ]-[ Foreword ]-[ Terms ]-[ General principles ]-[ Methods of slaughter ]
[ Consumption of meat ]-[ Stunning of animals ]-[ Stunning and pain ]

Electrical stunning and pain (1)


Studies undertaken

The WHO consultant undertook the following activities:

  1. A visit to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh University, Scotland, to acquaint himself with research and studies conducted there on experiments involving animals and birds.Special interest was given to pain sensation and mercy slaughter carried out with the use of various types of electrical stunning.

  2. A visit.to the official abattoir run by the local council authorities, to observe first hand application of various electrical stunning methods, including cerebral shock administered to sheep and calves. On-site experts took him through slaughter processes and gave him a run-down of the procedures being applied.

  3. A visit to the Poultry Research Centre of the Agriculture and Food Research Council, about forty miles out of Edinburgh, to witness experiments being conducted on animal nervous systems and the effects of wet electrical stunning, which often causes the death of animals before slaughter, as well as gas treatment and strangulation.

A visit to the Bristol Food Research Institute (formerly the Meat Research Institute) of the Agriculture and Food Research Council, to conduct electrical stunning tests on three sheep. Prior to each test, the sheep underwent an operation in the head under general anaesthesia, using halothane gas. This involved the insertion, using electrical needles, of four electrodes into the skull until they touched the cerebral tissues, They were then sealed and stitched up, About 90 minutes later, the animal regained consciousness and was observed to show a good appetite for food shortly afterwards. It also resumed its normal activity while the electrodes were still inside its skull.

The following day, a study was undertaken to asses the effect of electrical stunning on the animal's elcctroencephalogram and the stages the animal passes through from the first epilepsy seizure it undergoes for the initial 5 to l5 seconds, immediately following the electric shock, This would usually be followed by spasmodic muscular convulsions which could last for 50 to 60 seconds, followed by a statc of relaxation and unconsciousness lasting for a further 65 to 128 seconds. The animal begins to come to after 129 to 192 seconds and then starts to regain normal consciousness after 193 to 320 seconds. These figures hold true when using a standardized electric shock device and an electric current with certain specifications.

Conclusion

The references listed at the end of the report provide supporting evidence that electrical stunning, administered under the afore-mentioned terms and specifications with respect to the devices used and the current intensity and with adherence to proper procedures, would not cause pain to the animal, This is due to the fact that, as a result of the electric shock, the side cortex of the cerebral lobe goes into a state of unconscious torpor, This conclusion, however, still lacks empirical evidence, as the recording instruments -available. fail to function at the precise moment of electrical stunning, Furtheririore- pain locations have yet to be precisely identified. The question will,' therefore, remain open until instruments that can record the effects of stunning at the moment it occurs are developed.

The fact remains, however, that electroencephalography has shown that animals do not experience a sensation of the ordeal of the slaughter:while unconscious due to total absence of feeling during both the clonic and aclonic convulsion states.
   
It is evident that slaughter, following electrical stunning, is free of pain and, as such, is commensurate with the recommendation of the .Prophet "when  you slaughter (an animal) do it with perfection".
 
 As to whether the animal actually experiences pain as a resultt of the stunning shock itself, which takes place over a fraction of a second, this has yet to be satisfactorily ascertained, as present instruments are not equipped to measure that pain. There are sufficient indications, however, to show that pain does not in fact occur at the moment of electrical stunning'.
Accordingly, the permissibility of animal slaughter, from the Islamic point of view, following electrical stunning is unquestionable, since the animal would still, if not slaughtered, be alive and capable of resuming its normal life functions within minutes of being stunned.

References

  1. Croft, P.G., 1952: The effects of electrical stimulation of the brain on the perception of pain. The assessment of pain perception. I. Ment. Sci., 98, 421-432.

  2. Croft, P.G.; Hume, C.W., 1956: Electrical stunning of sheep. Vet. Rec., I 68,318-321. !

  3. Lambooy, E., 1982: Electrical stunning of sheep. Meat Science, 6,
    123-135.

  4. Warrington, R., 1974: Electrical stunning; A review of the literature. Vet.
    Bull.,     44, (10) 617-635.

  5. Gregory, N.G., Wotton, S.B., 1985: The effect of slaughter on brain
    function. 31. Europ. Fleiscl1forscherkongreb, Albena/Bulgarian.

  6. Lindner, M., Brouschek, R., 1953: Klinische Erfahrigen mit der Jl
    i kurzreizmethode in der Elektrokrampftherapie. Der Nervenarzt, 24, -!i 163-164.'

  7. Muller, A., 1970: Grundlegendes zur Elektroanasthesie. Schweiz. Arch. , - Tie rheilk de, 112,215-232. ;1

  8. Breazile, l.E.; Kitchell, R.L., Naitoh, Y., 1963: Neural basis of pain in animals. Proc. 15th Res. Conf. Am. Meat Inst. Fdn., pp. 53-65.

  9. Lambooy, E., Mens, W.B.l., van Wimersma, Greidanus, T.l.B., 1985: Vasopressin and oxytocin in plasma of veal calves, sheep and pigs after high voltage electrical stunning. Meat Science, 14, 127-135. ,

  10. Leach, T.M., Warrington, R., Wotton, S.B., 1980: Use of a conditioned " 1stimulus to study whether the initiation of electrical pre-slaughter : stunning is painful. Meat Science, 4, 203-208.

  11. Blackmore, D.K., Newhook, l.C., 1976: Effects of different slaughter
    methods on bleeding sheep. Vet. Rec., 99, 312-316.

  12. Chrystall, B.B., Devine, C.E., Newton, K.G., 1981: Residual blood in I ' lamb muscles. Meat Science, 5, 339-345.

  13. Kirton, A.H., Frazerhurst, L.F., Woods, E.G., Chrystall, B.B., 1981:
    Effect of electrical stunning method and cardiac arrest on bleeding efficiency, residual blood and blood splash in lambs. Meat Science, 5, 347-353.

  14. Devine, C.E., Ellery, S., Wade, L., Chrystall, B.B., 1984: Effects of electrical stunning on the early post-mortem glycolysis in sheep. Meat Science, 11, 301-309.

This scction is from report number WHO-EM/FOS/11-A on the visit by Dr Muhammad Abdulmunim Abul Fadl. made bctween 15 and 25 Novembcr 1987, to the University of Edinburgh Faculty of , Medicine. the Edinburgh abattoir. the Roslyn Poultry Research Center and the Bristol Nutrition  Research Institute. to verify that neithcr electrical stunning nor subsequent slaughter caused thc animal  any pain or distress. Most signilicant of such evidence is the fact that humans who are given electrical shock treatment sustain no pain as a result.

  • The most important or which is that a human being treated with electric shock does not feel pain due to the shock.