Islam orders us to have mercy upon all and sundry. A Muslim is required, as far as Islam is concerned, to treat animals kindly. By the same token, Islam has permitted Muslims to eat and drink from the wide-spread table in the earth. There are no restrictions in this area as long as the animal is lawful to eat, and it is slaughtered according to the Islamic manner of slaughtering.
Thus, battery farming where no maltreatment to animal is taken place, nor any form of disorganised or unhygenic way of hatching eggs is carried out is Halal. So what matters here is the way of handling the process.
We must also bear in mind that in battery farming, “about 25, 000 chickens are held in a large shed where there are hens and cockerels to fertilize the eggs, which as soon as they are laid are collected and washed in chemicals and then placed into large incubators.
After collecting the hens, they are washed and palced into a very large warm cabinet with 20,000 to 100,000 other eggs and left there. Every 12 hours a metal rod will roll this egg 180° and so on for 28 days until it hatches.
At the end of the laying period, the hens are shifted from the battery to the transport cages.”
The above quotation is excerpted from www.chickenrescue.org
Stressing the importance of taking care of animals in general, the late Sheikh Sayyed Mutawalli Ad-Darsh, former chairman of the UK Shari`ah Council, may Allah have mercy on him, states: “First of all, I’d like to make it clear that Muslims are obliged to treat animals without being cruel and to be caring and sensitive. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, once found some children taking aim at birds and he told them that we are not allowed to use live animals for target practice.
In another Hadith we are told that a woman was qualified to enter Hell for not feeding her cat or allowing it to water itself. There are so many Hadiths reported by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that urge Muslims to be kind to animals.
Animals are part of the Creation of Allah, which are made for the use of human beings. We have the right to consume these animals but only once we have uttered the Name of Allah over them to signify that we are taking a life that Allah has given. As long as the birds are being looked after in a proper manner, raising them in a good way, their products are all right.”