a propos the recent food debate 

I think if the head is cut off the jugular is severed as well. The trauma to the animal must depend on the sharpness of the knife and the skill of the user.

The trick with our feathered friends is to handle them from hatchlings so that they are used to you.  Pick them up, pet them, speak to them.  I used to put them to sleep by gently rubbing their beeks, that was very helpfull when it came time to do the work.  You will need a very sharp axe to cut their heads off and be warned they flap their wings after the head is chopped off.

I know alameda, they have their minds made up and I am willing to bet all that is important to me that those people have never butchered their own meat to eat it.

I had the main artery cut on my right wrist with a doctor´s scalpel, no anestisia no pain killers...  The only pain I felt was when the doctors put a garot on my wrist to stop the bleeding after the intervention.

The piston gun is only used to make the work of the slaugther house workers easier to handle the animal.  After being stunned the animal is then gored and hung to bleed, so it is more humaine for the workers and not the animals.

My reasonning is if you cannot butcher your meal yourself then do not tell others how to do the work and do not work in those types of environments.

People want to eat meat but then tie the hands of the ones who have to do the dirty work for them to enjoy their serloin steak.  We have been butchering animals in that fation since the advent of the blade.  I have shed a tear when I killed my first animal even now I still cannot butcher a rabbit and my brother who is 6 feet 2 and weighing 250lbs cannot butcher ducks but we have learned to respect the animals we are about to kill for our meals and not show them the blade that will slice it´s throat and WE ARE NOT MUSLIMS.  It is basic respect to the animal that will become our meal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal

his report quotes in particular the Ph.D work of Dr Pouillaude which concludes by: "religious slaughter would thus be a less stressing mode of slaughter. Conclusions of all the scientific experiments converge towards a firmly supported certainty: properly carried out, religious slaughter is the most humane way because it leads to less trauma to animals to be killed to be consumed for its meat".

http://www.shariahprogram.ca/eat-halal-foods/halal-slaughtering-controversy.shtml

THE SCIENTIFIC FACTS
A team at the University of Hanover in Germany examined these claims through the use of EEG and ECG records during slaughter. Several electrodes were surgically implanted at various points of the skull of all the animals used in the experiment and they were then allowed to recover for several weeks. Some of the animals were subsequently slaughtered the Halal way by making a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular veins and carotid arteries of both sides together with the trachea and esophagus but leaving the spinal cord intact. The remainders were stunned before slaughter using a captive bolt pistol method as is customary in Western slaughterhouses. The EEG and ECG recordings allowed to monitor the condition of the brain and heart throughout.

THE HALAL METHOD
With the Halal method of slaughter, there was no change in the EEG graph for the first three seconds after the incision was made, indicating that the animal did not feel any pain from the cut. This is not surprising. Often, if we cut ourselves sharp instrument, we do not notice until some time later. The following three seconds characterized by a condition of deep sleep like unconsciousness brought about by the draining of large quantities of blood from the body. Thereafter the EEG recorded a zero reading, indicating no pain at all, yet at that time the heart was still beating and the body convulsing vigorously as a reflex reaction of the spinal cord. It is this phase which is most unpleasant to onlookers who are falsely convinced that the animal suffers whilst its brain does a no longer record any sensual messages.

THE WESTERN METHOD
Using the Western method, the animals were apparently unconscious after stunning, and this method of dispatch would appear to be much more peaceful for the onlooker. However, the EEG readings indicated severe pain immediately after stunning. Whereas in the first example, the seizes to feel pain due to the brain starvation of blood and oxygen - a brain death, to put it in laymen´s terms - the second example first causes a stoppage of the heart whilst the animal still feels pain. However, there are no unsightly convulsions which not only means that there is more blood retention in the meat, but also that this method lends itself much more conveniently to the efficiency demands of modern mass slaughter procedures. It is so much easier to dispatch an animal on to the conveyor belt, if it does not move.

APPEARANCES CAN DECEIVE
Not all is what it seems, then. Those who want to outlaw Islamic slaughter, arguing for a humane method of killing animals for food, are actually more concerned about the feelings of people than those of the animals on whose behalf they appear to speak, The stunning method makes mass butchery easier and looks more palatable for the consumer who can deceive himself that the animal did not feel any pain when he goes to buy his cleanly wrapped parcel of meat from the supermarket. Islamic slaughter, on the other hand, does not try to deny that meat consumption means that animals have to die, but is designed to ensure that their loss of life is achieved with a minimum amount of pain.

I thought this would make almeda smile

 http://youtu.be/hVrIyEu6h_E

...........Frankly if it were humans that were being killed in such manners I don´t think it would be getting this much uproar...  Come to think of it, mankind is killing each other in such a fashion and no one seems to be bothered by it.

Before the advent of the "knocker" or piston gun to stun the animals, they were gored.  Who are we now to say that the halal way is wrong since it was the way we were doing it in the past?  It is yet another way for us to impose our ways by saying it is more humaine.  I beg to differ after having seen both ways of slaugthering animals. 

Threre are more pressing matters that needs to be tended to at the moment.  Famine in the world, war in the world, over use of natural resources, drugs being sold to children, children being sexually exploited and so on.  So I say to the law makers get your prioreties straight and stop passing laws that seems to put more importance on animals lives than on humans lives.  After they have done that then maybe they can start looking at ways to slaughter animals humainly while still respecting the halal way. 

Some people think "Arabic music" is a kind of "Turkish music".

.....................Surprisingly it goes on to say that 93% of halal meat in Britain comes from pre stuned slaughter. Some Jewish faith slaughter involves stunning after the cut is made.