Australia's first Muslim senator does not support 'traditional' halal slaughter where livestock are conscious when killed

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Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who immigrated to Australia from Pakistan in 1992, is against livestock having their throats cut while they are still conscious, as part of traditional Muslim and Jewish custom.

The minor party's animal welfare spokeswoman has confirmed that she does not support traditional abattoir slaughter methods, involving livestock being bled to death by having their throats slit while conscious - a day after the RSPCA and PETA called for certain halal and kosher practices to be banned in Australia. 

She does not, however, oppose all halal slaughter, arguing the vast majority of halal slaughter in Australia complies with standard practice where animals are stunned before they are killed. 

Mehreen Faruqi, Australia's first Muslim senator (pictured), does not support traditional halal slaughter where animals are conscious when they are killed

'Senator Faruqi supports mandatory standards for slaughter to ensure all animals are rendered insensible and unable to feel pain prior to being killed,' her spokesman and chief-of-staff Matt Hilton said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

In Australia, religious exemptions are granted allowing sheep and cattle to have their throats slit without being stunned first.

Australia's leading animal welfare groups have stepped up their calls for these killing methods to be banned, after the Flanders region in northern Belgium this week outlawed slaughter methods involving livestock being conscious. 

Australia's peak animal rights groups have demanded an end to halal (local abattoir pictured) and kosher slaughter practices where livestock have their throats slit while they are conscious

'For the record, she is vegetarian,' her spokesman said.

Most halal and kosher meat sold in Australia has been killed via the stun-gun method.

A small number of specialty stores, however, sell meat killed with the animal still being conscious.

The RSPCA said this heightened the risk of an animal suffering.

'Slaughtering an animal while fully conscious requires additional handling and restraint and means that the animal will experience pain associated with the throat cut and subsequent bleeding out,' it told Daily Mail Australia.

'For these reasons, the RSPCA is strongly opposed to all forms of slaughter that do not involve prior stunning of the animal and has asked governments – state and federal - to remove arrangements that allow unstunned slaughter.' 

In March 2017, Australia backed new Indonesia laws which will require, from October 2019, all meat exported to the Muslim-majority nation to be slaughtered the halal way.

Indonesia sources 80 per cent of its beef from Australia.

The RSPCA and PETA want animals to be stunned first before they are killed, after the Flanders region in northern Belgium outlawed traditional Muslim and Jewish abattoir customs

Diplomatic ties between the two nations were strained in 2011 when the Australian government temporarily banned live cattle exports, following media reports of barbaric halal slaughter methods in Indonesia.

In a bid to mend trade ties, former trade minister Steven Ciobo in 2017 visited Indonesia for three days.

Mr Ciobo used the occasion to announce Australian exporters would comply with upcoming Indonesia laws, which will require beef cattle and sheep to have their throats cut to be widely marketed in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

PETA, also known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, described traditional halal and kosher slaughter as animal cruelty.

'They are absolutely and understandably terrified when chains are shackled to their legs and they are hoisted into the air upside down,' it told Daily Mail Australia.

'For cattle and sheep who are killed without pre-stunning, unconsciousness can take several agonisingly painful seconds to come after their throats are cut.'  

Despite Indonesia sourcing 80 per cent of its beef from Australia, the RSPCA says religious exemptions allowing animals to be conscious when they are killed needed to end

To qualify as halal, or permissible in Islam, live animals must have their throats cut as part of the slaughter and die from blood loss.

In most cases, animals are stunned before they are slaughtered however, state government laws in Australia grant religious exemptions, which mean the livestock can still be conscious when it is killed. 

The Flanders region in northern Belgium has effectively banned traditional halal and kosher slaughter practices since January 1, when the law first proposed in 2017 came into force.

The French-speaking Wallonia region in southern Belgium will officially ban those practices in September. 

When legislation was first proposed in May 2017, it was slammed as 'the greatest assault on Jewish religious rights since Nazi occupation' by the European Jewish Congress. 

•  Since first publication we have been asked to clarify that Senator Faruqi has not initiated a call to action to end traditional halal slaughter but she supports mandatory standards for halal slaughter in which animals are stunned prior to slaughter. We are happy to make this clear