(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "It's not necessarily more humane to have all animals stunned," Ikebal Patel, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Saturday, June 18.
"The process of stunning itself is inherently painful to the animal on impact."
According to the Islamic ritual, the animal is slaughtered by a sharp blade.
In Australia, abattoirs are required to stun the animals before their throat is cut, but several have been given approval to slaughter animals without stunning in accordance with the Islamic ritual.
But, Australia's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said the religious method of animal killing is brutal and should be banned.
"The RSPCA believes that it's unacceptable to cut the throat of an animal or sever blood vessels while the animal is fully conscious," RSPCA spokeswoman Melina Tensen said.
"It's been shown that sheep can be conscious after the throat cuts for 20 to 30 seconds," Tensen said.
"So that's quite a long time to be aware of the fact that the pain of the knife cut and the actual stress of the bleeding-out process.
"From an animal welfare perspective, killing an animal without stunning it first is unacceptable."
The debate comes on the heels of a RSPCA-backed decision by the Australian government to ban live cattle from being exported to Indonesia for slaughter for six months over, what animal rights activists said, cruel slaughter practices.
The ritual slaughter has been also the subject of controversy in the Netherlands, where a pro-animal party submitted a proposal to ban the ritual slaughter on grounds that it causes unnecessary pain to the animal, drawing criticism from Jewish and Muslim groups in the country.
Muslim scholars agree that Shari`ah provides a divine law of mercy that should be applied on all Allah’s creations, including animals.
Islam also provides details about avoiding any unnecessary pain.
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