Shocking animal welfare in Halal meat trade.

Not sure at all if this is the right place to put this, but I just finished watching this Four Corners (Australian investigative program) report on live animal exports to Indonesia and wanted to share it.

Please be aware this is very upsetting. You have been warned.

Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS.

Thanks. Was vacillating between the two.

You might not get much of a response to this thread.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s iView function is similar to the BBC’s iPlayer, in that the content is only available to people residing in the broadcaster’s country of origin.

Only people in Australia will be able to view your link.

How about a brief description for us to be outraged by?

Damn I thought that might be the case. Here’s a linkto a site trying to ban live exports, the woman in the clip was interviewed extensively in the Four Corners report and has been behind gathering the evidence to present against this practice. This clip is not even remotely the worst of the worst that was on the report.

Here are some links that may have info:
Video here: Warning it has graphic images http://www.animalsaustralia.org/
Live export ban looms
RSPCA Australia - ban live exports - website

Jakarta calls for calm in cattle row

I live in Indonesia and I eat Australian beef, though the beef I buy is not specifically marketed as halal. I would dearly like to know more as I don’t want to do anything that encourages animal cruelty. Unfortunately that link is nearly useless at the moment - too slow, and no real information on the home page.

So now I am left with many burning questions: Halal slaughter is supposedly designed to minimize an animal’s suffering. Is this not really the case, or is the slaughter being carried out in an incompetent manner? Is there any discussion of beef being exported from Australia to Indonesia that is already dead? (The way it is packaged when I buy it, it would appear to have been butchered and wrapped before shipping.)

And last but not least, is this really a “halal” issue? Or just a general animal cruelty issue? It always makes me feel queasy when religion gets dragged into an argument unless there is a good reason for it. I’m assuming that this is NOT some new form of anti-Islamic discrimination, but I’ll feel better when I can verify that.

And, is the problem in the butchering or the transportation? If it is the transportation, it’s likely to be equally bad whether the animals go to Indonesia or to Japan.

This has been posted on an Indonesian message board I frequent with this link.

The show exemplifies why I loathe getting my information from TV … it’s going on and on and on and on and has presented far fewer facts that I would now have in my possession with even a cursory reading of a print article. GAAAHHHHH. Having said that, I shall try to answer my own questions:

  1. This is not beef I’m eating.
  2. The show (so far) says virtually NOTHING about religion, so I don’t know why “halal” has to be brought into it.
  3. The scenes are horrific.

One thing that’s interesting about the show and almost makes the s—l—o—w presentation of data bearable is that they interview Temple Grandin. She thinks the conditions are appalling.

Nava, to answer your question - based on what I’ve seen of the show, the problem is definitely the butchering. According to the show, they are well-treated until they reach Indonesian abattoirs.

Missed the edit window, but I have now seen the rest of the show. The subject of religion does come up later, but it is pretty clear that it’s not really a religious problem. It has to do with the skill level of the butchers and the sharpness of the knives used. Further, they note that there is a style of stunner, slowly being adopted in a few locations, that is considered “halal.”

Just briefly:

Last night’s Four Corners program included footage of Australian cattle being beaten, whipped and kicked prior to slaughter, and the RSPCA says some of the animals showed signs of possibly being conscious as they were dismembered.

The BBC website says nothing about halal.

Sounds like maybe what should be done isn’t stop the trade but train those butchers better and improve their tools and working conditions.

When the local abbatoir first hired a halal butcher (there were three positions open and, given the amount of muslims who had been moving into the area, one was assigned to be halal), they talked with the leaders of the local muslim communities about spreading the word and to get information on what would the halal butcher have to do to make his work halal - but they also had to follow local care standards.

One of the reasons our chicken is considered halal because it is transported and slaughtered compassionately.

That’s what it looks like to me. I watched the beginning of one video, in which a steer is clumsily and inefficiently restrained and then beaten for no apparent reason. Two centuries ago, peasants were able to slaughter cattle more efficiently and humanely. The beating didn’t appear to be for the purpose of actually killing the steer, but just for the amusement of the workers. I didn’t watch more than that, because 1) I got the POINT already, and I knew that I’d just see more abuse and 2) the narrator kept referring to the steer by name. I’m pretty sure that she gave the name to the steer herself, most food animals don’t HAVE names.

I’m no expert in this matter, but I DO know that meat animals are supposed to be killed as quickly as possible. Usually, with the big ones, the animal is stunned first, sometimes by a single blow to the forehead with a huge mallet, by hand, sometimes with a machine called a humane killer. Then someone cuts the animals throat and it bleeds out while unconscious. The workers in the film I saw tried to restrain the animal with ropes first, and then kick it without dealing a stunning blow.

You can say what you want about American slaughterhouses (and I’m reading Fast Food Nation right now, yeah, I’m behind the curve) but at least they kill QUICKLY. Religion really has nothing to do with it…a slaughterhouse where the workers are standing around, watching another worker kick a steer into submission, is not at all efficient. The workers could kill and butcher several steers in the time it takes to kick one into submission.

I eat meat, but I prefer to think that it’s not tortured unnecessarily before it gets to my table.

There are recorded cases of American slaughterhouses where much the same sort of behavior occurs. I am of the opinion that the act of slaughter itself desensitizes workers and causes them to objectify the animals, which in turn sooner or later leads to deliberate abuse by bored and number workers.

Again, in most American slaughterhouses, free time in which to act out does not seem to be a problem. The problem seems to along the lines of “not enough time to do the job in a sanitary and safe manner”.

Here is an update:

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/cattle-exports-banned-to-indonesia/story-e6frfku0-1226071368249?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newscomaunationalbreakingnewsndm+(NEWS.com.au+|+National+Breaking+News)&utm_content=My+Yahoo

I have no idea what happened to my link:

http://tinyurl.com/4x7uf9d

I am in Singapore and this has been in the news a lot lately due to our proximity to Indonesia. I know this is just one side of the story and not all slaughter houses are run this way, but here is a link to a website jointly run by Animals Australia and the RSPCA. I will warn you, there is some heartbreaking stuff in these videos.

http://www.banliveexport.com/