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As Muslims, we know the spiritual and the health significance of treating animals with kindness and slaughtering them in a halal manner; however, in the shadow of recent outbreaks of the Mad Cow and Foot-and-Mouth diseases, it is clear that the rest of the world should be told as well.
The guidelines for preparing halal meat are clear. We must treat livestock with gentleness; we must never consume dead meat, blood, or flesh of the swine, or any animal that consumes such; and we must slaughter animals in a certain manner. The Qur'an (2.173) says, "He has only forbidden you what dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that over which any other (name) than (that of) Allah has been invoked; but whoever is driven to necessity, not desiring, nor exceeding the limit, no sin shall be upon him; surely, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, "[When] you must kill a living being, do it in the proper way - when you slaughter an animal, use the best method, and sharpen your knife so as to cause as little pain as possible."
When he saw a man sharpening his knife in the presence of the animal he was about to kill, the Prophet (SAW) asked, "Do you intend inflicting death on the animal twice - once by sharpening the knife within its sight, and once by cutting its throat?"
The Holy Prophet emphasized not only the physical but also the emotional care of animals - so much so that he once reprimanded his wife, A'ishah, for treating a camel a bit offhandedly. Hazrat A'ishah herself narrates, "I was riding a restive camel and turned it rather roughly. The Prophet said to me, 'It behooves you to treat the animals gently'" (Sahih Muslim, Vol. 4, Hadith No. 2593; Awn, 7:155, Hadith No. 2461).
We follow these guidelines because, as people of faith, we believe that Allah has taught us the best way. However, recent events in the cattle industry have shed light on why "halal" methods should be practiced by everyone.
Mad Cow Disease was first diagnosed in England in 1986, and spread rapidly after healthy cows were fed meal made from the organs and meat of infected cows. The epidemic caused 3.7 million British cattle to be slaughtered, resulting in the collapse of Great Britain's cattle industry. As humans ate the BSE-infected meat, they also became ill and died from a chronic wasting disease of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy family, which essentially turns victims' brains into something akin to Swiss cheese. In cows, the variety is called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow Disease. The human form is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or CJD, which strikes the elderly as a spontaneous mutation in about one in a million adults. The connection between the cannibalistic cows and CJD was clear until a medical examiner noticed that along with unusual psychiatric symptoms, the brain pathology of CJD victims was found to be vividly reminiscent of Kuru, a disease found in a New Guinea tribe of cannibals which ate the brains of their dead.
The ultimate cause of both the disease in humans and cows was finally discovered to be a "prion," an infectious protein that is practically invulnerable because of its unique makeup. It is not adequately destroyed by cooking, canning nor freezing meat, or by chemicals, UV or radiation.
However, Mad Cow Disease is not the only danger lurking in our beef. In January 2001, yet another plague struck European herds in the form of Foot-and-Mouth Disease, a viral disease that can cause lameness, blisters, fever and death in cows but is not fatal in humans. It can travel many miles by air, in contaminated animal by-products and equipment, or through third-party contact. Heat, sunlight and disinfectants destroy the virus. Currently, infected herds are being destroyed and affected areas isolated.
At the same time, there has been a renewed concern in the U.S. about the existence of Mad Cow Disease in U.S. herds because of a recent quarantine of 1,221 cattle and recall of 22 tons of feed on January 27th at a Purina Mills plant. Cow meat and bone meal were mixed into a feed supplement that was put on the wrong truck, said Beverly Boyd, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Agriculture. A Purina Mills spokesman said that the company has begun "phasing out" (but has not stopped) the use of meat and bone meal from cows in any of its livestock feed. Beef byproducts are supposed to be banned for cattle or sheep feed, but are commonly used in swine and poultry feed.
Even more frightening is the wide scale usage of "downer-cows," prime candidates for spreading disease. In Islam, it is forbidden to eat animals that have died on their own. However, in the U.S., about 300,000 cows die each year for unexplainable reasons, and their remains are used in many items that Americans consume or use. The "downer-cow" is usually melted down in a process called "rendering into feed," and her bones are boiled along with her skin and cartilage to make gelatin, a main ingredient in Jell-O and marshmallows.
A recent critical experiment raised the possibility that many of these downer cows may also have BSE. Medical examiner Dr. Marsh inoculated scrapie-infected sheep brain into U.S. cattle. When the same experiment was done in England the cows went mad, twitching and kicking into a rabid frenzy. But in America, the cows instead staggered to their deaths like downer cows do, supporting the belief that a form of BSE already exists in the United States.
Additional research into cases of CDJ has turned up a number of victims in the U.S., and medical examiners have discovered that many cases diagnosed as Alzheimer's were misdiagnoses (the symptoms are very similar to CDJ). Since this announcement, people diagnosed with Alzheimer's have been screened, resulting in many more cases of CDJ being reported in the U.S. A preliminary 1989 study at the University of Pennsylvania showed that over 5% of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's were actually dying from a human spongiform encephalopathy, meaning that as many as 200,000 people in the United States may already be dying from Mad Cow Disease each year.
The first problem aggravating infection in meat is the conditions under which livestock are being kept. To prevent the spread of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in the U.K., it is advised that animals be kept in sanitary, open and un-crowded conditions. Since heat and sunlight destroy the virus, the simple act of allowing cows to roam in open land, as they were meant to, would prevent much of the spread of the disease. Instead, overcrowding at factory farms causes many animals to become psychotic and to mutilate themselves because of boredom or stress. According to the advise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the first step in raising truly halal meat is to treat animals with respect and kindness.
The second problem to be addressed is what animals are being fed. The outbreak of Mad Cow Disease stemmed from giving livestock feed that was made from the bones and remains of cows that had been infected from eating bone meal made from pigs and infected sheep. This meant that not only were these cows eating blood, but they were also eating "downed" animals and pork. ALL THREE are forbidden in Islam.
On top of this, cows are naturally vegetarian. Even if they were fed meat raised and slaughtered under halal conditions, it would still not be halal to feed them unnaturally.
The third problem in infected meat is how animals are killed. When electrocution or any other method in which the blood is not allowed to drain is used to kill animals, toxins containing a number of pathogens are allowed to seep from their blood into their meat, rather than being drained from animals. These toxins include hormones and, perhaps, even diseases from cannibalistic cow feed. However, when the blood is allowed to flow from the body, many toxins can be cleared from the cow's system. Of course, this cannot actually clear the transmission of the harmful protein, BSE, but it can lessen the spread of other diseases.
The last problem in infected meat is how the meat is cooked and eaten. "Allah loves the patient;" however, patience is often not something that goes along with cooking meat. At fast food restaurants, barbecues, and even preparing a quick lunch at home, people are often tempted to quickly heat up meat and consume it before it has reached the necessary temperature for killing harmful bacteria like E-Coli. Diseases like BSE and Foot-and-Mouth disease cannot be eradicated by cooking; however, adequate cooking does kill the E-Coli bacteria - yet another danger lurking in our beef (see this week's article "Health Issues and E-Coli in Beef" by Hwaa Irfan).
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