I have witnessed a animal being killed to be eaten at a young age. My grandpa killed it. The animal was owned by my grandparents and I use to take it to roam around as it pleased most days in summer. Animal welfare is taken very seriously in Islam. I am not much of a muslim I don't know much about it but I do remember my grandparents saying things like, it is living and breathing it deserves to walk and live just like us and so I did alot of herding around hills at a young age. When it was killed to eat, I didnt feel much for it. I just accepted that was the sequence of life. We had respect for the animal and were silent for much of the time it was being killed and after. Grandpa took it very seriously. We knew that the animal was special. Consumption of meat should not be as it is right now. The whole idea of killing it in a instint causes a mass killing at one time, it is obviously a favoured technique of a entrepeniour. I am not saying this because I come from a muslim background but I feel that a animal deserves more attention than a simple gun to the head. After this method has been introduced a huge mass production of meat was able to come forth. We now have meat daily, a human doesnt need the amount of meat we consume in a day in a week. By doing it the traditional way we will bring something which humans are trying to erase, the fact a animal is dying. We feel it is okay to kill and treat it as we like because we are not causing it any pain. Less animals would die if we did kill them the traditional way.
Doesnt the meat seem a little more precious when it is killed the traditional way? Stunning to the head makes the animal seem worthless to me, whereas if a animal was killed the traditional way I feel pain with the animal.
Imagine it this way. You are at war, it is easier to kill a human with a bullet, but stabbing with a sword makes you think twice. Less humans are killed with the sword, more is felt by the stabber when he proceeds to kill, but he continues to do so as it is his duty to serve his nation. Killing with bullets happens so suddenly you don't even realise, is that how little a human life should be worth? This is the same case with the animal, by killing it the traditional way we will be able to reduce the amount of consumption of meat to the level that we as humans need, no more or less. It would cost more to have it killed the traditional way, this also plays in the hands of companies.
I think much of this argument is missing because companies want people to favour the stunning method as it allows them to kill the animal cheaper and quicker.