Halal Slaughter of Livestock: Animal Welfare Science, History and Politics of Religious Slaughter

This unique volume gives insight into the science of slaughter with in-depth discussion of neural communication and the welfare aspects of pre-slaughter handling and slaughter of livestock. The concepts of conscious perception, unconsciousness, stunning, slaughter and death are discussed to provide readers with an understanding of the different events that lead to the conversion of animals into carcasses and subsequently into meat. This accessible work is an excellent resource for learning about welfare issues of different techniques, as it includes historical aspects of religious and conventional slaughter with a focus on the developments around technologies. It comprises the advent of mechanical slaughter in the form of poleaxes to present day use of sophisticated stunning equipment.Moreover, the author covers key aspects of halal meat production and discusses the politics of religious slaughter with an emphasis on the increasing number of anti-halal movements across Europe, America and others. The slaughter of animals for consumption by people of faith is economically significant and has led to a race for market share by multinational retail enterprises. However, there are also ethical and political aspects of religious slaughter which have always divided opinion.The topic of this book provides an important link to the disciplines of animal welfare research, the meat industry and the food business. Scientists, students, as well as government agencies, veterinarians and professionals in food processing and slaughter technology manufacturing will find this an important account. Simplified summaries and practical notes make this reference highly readable.

Dr Awal Fuseini holds a BSc (Agriculture) degree from Cape Coast University in Ghana, MSc (Meat Science and Technology) from Bristol University in the UK and a PhD (Animal Welfare), also from Bristol University. Awal has extensive experience of working in the meat industry where he worked in a variety of roles, including auditing and managing certification activities for one of the largest Halal certification bodies in the UK. He also briefly worked as a consultant, during which he provided services to food businesses and certifiers on issues around Halal meat production. Awal has published numerous scientific papers in several high impact peer reviewed journals, including the Journals of Animals, Meat Science, Animal Welfare, Veterinary Record, Food Ethics, CAB Reviews and others. His work has been cited widely and attracted the attention of policy makers, politicians and the mainstream media.He is currently the Halal Sector Manager at the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). His role at AHDB involves collaborating with key Halal stakeholders in the UK to create a better understanding of the Halal market with a view to adding value. As part of his role at AHDB, Awal also advises meat exporters on the requirements of different export markets and has been part of UK export missions to the Middle East and Africa. Awal contributes to a number of meat industry working groups and currently co-chairs the Food Standards Agency’s Partnership Working Group-Work Stream 2 on the direct sale of Qurbani meat to Muslim consumers.