The Halal Institute of the Islamic Council rejects stunning chickens before slaughter.
The Halal Institute has issued a statement rejecting stunning before slaughter. It doesn't matter that the animals experience pain, fear and suffering until they lose consciousness.
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The Halal Institute, the certification body linked to the Islamic Council, has announced its rejection of the use of gases to stun chickens before ritual Islamic slaughter. In a Official statement Published on 15 October 2026, l‘The organisation requires that the animals remain alive until the moment they are slaughtered and that they die as a result of the cut.. In sacrifices carried out without prior stunning, the chickens are conscious when their throats are cut and They experience pain, fear and suffering until they lose consciousness..
Contempt for scientific knowledge about animal suffering is common among Islamic leaders, also in Catalonia. Mohamed El Ghaidouni, president of the Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia, He even went so far as to say that «only the animal knows if it is suffering.» and that science cannot determine whether an animal suffers more with stunning. or with ritual slaughter. Statements that question the ability of science to study animal pain, despite the accumulated evidence of the suffering caused by slaughter without prior stunning.
Science confirms suffering
The pain experienced by animals during slaughter without stunning is scientifically documented. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published in 2019 a report on the slaughter of birds in which identifies pain, fear and anguish as consequences of this procedure. When the neck of a conscious chicken is cut, tissues, nerves and blood vessels containing pain receptors are injured. Loss of consciousness is not immediate and the animal may continue to perceive painful stimuli while it bleeds out.
The pre-stunning is precisely intended to prevent animals from being conscious during slaughter and bleeding. For this reason, European Regulation 1099/2009 states that animals must be stunned before slaughter and kept unconscious until death.. However, Article 4.4 introduces a religious exception that allows animals to be slaughtered without prior stunning, provided the procedure is carried out in a slaughterhouse.
Religion before animal welfare
For the Halal Institute, it is no problem for chickens to suffer during slaughter. The problem is that they might die before being slaughtered according to Islamic ritual. The certifying body rejects gas stunning because it considers that it does not guarantee that the animals remain alive and conscious until the cut is made to the throat. Even rules out the feasibility of individually checking whether the chickens are still alive after gas stunning. He justifies it by the large volume of animals processed in industrial slaughterhouses: «The simultaneous handling of large numbers of birds prevents their physiological condition from being checked one by one.» Such individual checks would require more time, staff and resources, with a consequent increase in production costs.
The organisation also warns that using stunning methods incompatible with the regulations halal It could lead to certificates being rejected and make it difficult to export meat to Muslim markets.. To justify its position, it cites standards from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. The statement devotes special attention to the religious validity of the certificates., to the rights of Muslim consumers and to the commercial interests of the sector, while it does not specifically address the pain that birds may experience when they are slaughtered without prior stunning. Animal suffering is relegated while religious requirements and economic gain dictate how animals must die in a Western country.
The million-pound business behind the sacrifice halal
The fulfilment of Sharia It has also become a commercial condition for selling meat to certain Muslim markets.. Companies need certifications. halal for exporting to them, and the certification bodies determine which slaughter procedures are acceptable. The Halal Institute itself warns that using stunning systems incompatible with these requirements can lead to the rejection of certificates and the loss of access to international markets. Thus, eReligious and economic interests converge in a system. protected by politics and economic interests.
According to the data published by the Halal Institute itself, Spanish exports of meat certified by this body exceeded €2,052 million between 2017 and 2022.. In Catalonia, the sector estimates that there is a potential market of around 700,000 consumers of products. halal. These figures show the economic dimension of an industry that adapts its procedures to religious requirements in order to access international markets.
A 7th-century religion sacrifices 21st-century animal welfare
When Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century, modern stunning systems and today's scientific knowledge about animal pain and consciousness did not exist. Sacrificial rites were carried out with the instruments and knowledge of the time. Fourteen centuries later, Western science tells us that slaughtering a conscious animal causes it pain and suffering, and we have technologies developed precisely to prevent this.. Although we cannot expect there to have been a debate on animal welfare in the seventh century, the result is that a Western country allows animals to be slaughtered using techniques and moral criteria from fourteen centuries ago.
Both the Halal Institute and meat consumers halal They condition industrial processes. After fourteen centuries, animals can still be slaughtered while conscious, but now under the supervision of a veterinarian.
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