There are laws for everything nowadays, but that doesn't mean they are adhered to. Ten years of watching videos tells the truth about what goes on behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses around the world. The first thing to remember is that animals can smell the blood from miles away. We humans have 6,000,000 smell receptors but pigs for example, have 300,000,000 which means that the smell of blood and death and fear is evident to them when they are five miles away. So not only have they been ripped away from the misery that is familiar, they've often been transported for hours, in all temperatures and without food or water and often crammed into the trucks so tightly that they cannot move even to find relief from that discomfort.
And even though there are rules about stunning before slaughter, that doesn't mean it's effective or that the treatment up to that point is decent and respectful. They are frequently shocked and beaten to make them move towards their deaths. And those rules don't always mean the guys handling the equipment are skilful or that they even care about making sure the job is done properly. Also in slaughterhouses where the line moves quickly there often isn't enough time to do it properly which means that animals can often arrive at the de-limbing stations, still conscious and aware. In the USA in the big slaughterhouses, the line often moves at the speed of 300 animals per hour. An article in the Washington Post a few years ago, quoted one worker there who said cattle often arrived at his station (de-limbing), still trying to moo and looking around as they struggled. And the line was not shut down to restun and kill properly. The legs came off.
If anyone doesn't believe that what goes on in a slaughterhouse isn't as bad as halal or that it isn't barbaric and terrible, then you just don't really know and are hanging on to a delusion about 'kind killing'. It isn't kind, it's just killing. And it's killing that is not only unnecessary, but it is also wreaking havoc and ruin on the planet. In this day and age where we have the knowledge and the technology to competently replace every animal product with nutritious, tasty and useful plant based products, to continue this is to submit to habit and tradition only and at the cost of compassion.
I invite you to look at the following video of a UK slaughterhouse in Essex (?). You will notice that they are mistreated brutally before death and some are obviously not stunned as they are being killed and they are killed in front of each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewS5-DmKmOM
I can find dozens of videos of exactly the same treatment, but taking place in every country on the planet. And that brutality is across the board whether kosher, halal or Western.
