ritual slaughter

Either the killing of animals for religious purposes, such as sacrifice in order to appease a god, or, as in Islam and Judaism, the killing of an animal for food according to strict religious rules.

In Judaism, shechitah (ritual slaughter), though not prescribed in the Hebrew Bible, has been practised from very early on. Both Muslim and Jewish laws try to reduce the likely suffering for an animal, and under shechitah, only those qualified and without infirmity can conduct the slaughter. After a prayer of blessing, the animal's windpipe is severed in one cut. Argument rages about whether ritual slaughter is inherently more or less cruel to animals than the processes of stunning and then cutting laid down in, for example, European Union legislation. In Hinduism, dispensation is given for the slaughter of goats, accompanied by the mantra, whispered in the animal's ear: ‘I am killing you now, but in a future incarnation you will have the right to kill me.’