Mechanical Slaughter of Animals
Dear Scholars:as-salamu ?alaykum!nowadays, it is not unusual in a poultry dressing plants (animal slaughter houses) where thousands of chickens are being slaughtered hourly. Is mechanical slaughtering of chicken allowed and Halal in Islam in this case? The following hereunder is clear proof that mechanical slaughtering of animal is being undertaken as in the case of ISLAMIC CO-ORDINATING COUNCIL OF VICTORIA PTY. LTD., AUSTRALIA, to wit: Guideline for Mechanical Slaughtering of Chicken ? The person handling the chicken and the operator of the machine should be Muslim appointed by ICCV. ? The operator must recite the prayer prior to switching the mechanical knife. ? Should the slaughter man leave the slaughter area, he will be replaced by another Muslim slaughter man. The former will stop the line and switch off the mechanical knife. To restart the operation the second slaughter man must recite the prayer as described above, before switching on the mechanical knife and the line. ? The knife used should be of a single blade type and must be sharp. ? The trachea, oesophagus, and major blood bevels in the neck region (jugular and carotid) of the bird must be severed allowing proper bleeding. ? To have the birds facing the mechanical knife, slaughtering the bird at the back of the head is not permitted. ? The slaughter man is required to check that each bird is properly slaughtered. ? Assistant slaughter man should slaughter manually any birds that miss the mechanical knife. ? The scalding (defeathering) tank should be at a reasonable distance from the slaughtering area thus ensuring that the bird has no life prior to entering the hot water tank. ? The temperature of the water should not exceed 52 degrees Celsius. ? Halal logo / stamp should be at all time under the control of ICCV personnel. ? Halal transfer certificate should be issued for every single Halal load out.the details of slaughterers, supervision, contamination, processing, storage, Halal identification, certification are as if beef / sheep manual (ICCV Halal / Food Manual). Jazakum Allah khairan
