Speaking with some experience, simply rounding the steer up and separating it from the rest of the herd is stressful. There is a lot of kicking and bucking going on. I’m sure this releases not only stress hormones, but fatigue poisons. I’m also sure it doesn’t affect the flavor of the meat, and, again, I’m speaking from some little actual personal experience. I’ve been the guy who pulled that trigger.
(Never used a knife…)
AK84:
Firstly, they do not kill them by “cutting their throat”. They do so by severing the carotid artery and the jugular vein which causes an immidiet and massive loss of blood pressure, unconsciousness within a few seconds and death in under a minute. They don’t feel pain for the obvious reasons, the organ which perceives pain is starved of blood and dying.
Secondly, yes they did control to see what readings an animal in pain would display.
Thirdly,read the damn thing before making presumptions and surmises about the motivations of the testers. The study was done in Germany and while the Germans can be accused of many things, they cannot be called Islamophiles or in favor of ritual slaughter. For the record, they tested several types of slaughter on calves and sheep. Almost all showed the animals suffering no pain, with the exception of sheep killed by bolt who apparently did. The test was not done with the motive of seeing whether or not ritual slaughter was humane, it was done to see whether various methods caused pain to different types on animals. This test has been cited both in academia and by various Courts of law, including the German Federal Court in 2002.
Lastly, about two seconds of thought would make it clear that it is (whatever the method chosen) the slaughterers interests to ensure that the animals feel little pain. And animal in pain is one in distress and therefore one which is a danger to the personnel near it and or equipment.
It’s not quite that simple. In cattle, the vertebral arteries also supply the brain with blood.
From here:
Welfare issues are greater for cattle because they take longer to become unconscious compared to sheep. When both carotid arteries are severed, sheep will lose sensibility within 2 to 14 seconds (Newhook and Blackmore 1982, Gregory and Wotton 1984, Nangeroni and Kennett 1963, Schulz et al 1978, Blackmore 1984). Most sheep will be insensible within 10 seconds. Calves and cattle take a longer period of time to become insensible and they are more likely to have a prolonged period of insensibility. The time to loss of insensibility when good cutting technique is used will range from 17 sec to 85 sec (Blackmore 1984, Blackmore et al 1983l, Gregory and Wotton, 1984, Grandin 2010, Daly et al 1988, Gregory et al 2010). Some cattle may have prolonged periods of sensibility lasting up to 385 seconds (Blackmore, 1984). When good technique is used the average time to collapse is 17 seconds (Grandin 2910). Both scientific research and practical experience indicate that cattle have more problelms with prolonged periods of sensibility compared to sheep. Another problem in cattle is occlusion of the carotids which can occur after the act (Gregory 2010). This problem is less likely to occur in sheep and goats. Occlusions caused by false aneuryms do not occur in sheep and goats (N. Gregory, Personal Communication in 2011).
The main reason for the differences between cattle and sheep is due to differences in the anatomy of the blood vessels that supply the brain (Baldwin and Bell, 1963 a,b,c; and Blackman et al, 1986). When slaughter without stunning is done, both carotid arteries are cut. In sheep the carotid arteriees that are located in the front of the throat provide the brain with it’s entire supply of blood. In cattle the vertebral arteries which are not severed by the cut also supply the brain with blood. Therefore, when the carotids are severed in cattle the brain still has a blood supply. The differences in the blood supply to the brain of sheep and catle have been researched in detail (Baldwin and Bell 1963 a,b,c,d). It is also likley that the yak is similar to cattle (Ding et al 2007).
For what it’s worth, I graduated from vet school in 2000. At that time, the most up to date research suggested that halal slaughter was relatively humane, as long as the animal was restrained appropriately. More recent research seems to conclude otherwise.
The overall welfare of many farm animals in life and death leaves a lot to be desired, and I don’t think this is the biggest battle to be fought, but personally I would prefer to leave religion out of it.