New Delhi, India

The current European Union law states that all animals farmed for food production must be made unconscious (stunned using electricity, gas, or a stun gun) before being killed.

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The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe took the position in 2002 that "the practice of slaughtering animals without prior stunning is unacceptable under any circumstances", and the issue has gradually become more central for animal welfare campaigners, and for politicians.

However, exceptions are made in the context of some religious practices. These practices very often result in animals being killed using a knife to cut their throat and bled to death while being fully conscious.

The slaughter of conscious animals was widely abandoned in the 20th Century and is now practiced mainly in the Jewish and Muslim communities.

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In the Netherlands and elsewhere, most of the remains of an animal slaughtered by the Jewish method (shechita) end up on supermarket shelves as regular meat products, because parts of the carcass are forbidden to Jews under their dietary laws.

Under Kosher slaughter, known as shechita in Hebrew, the animal's neck is cut with a surgically sharp knife, severing its major arteries, causing a massive drop in blood pressure followed by death from loss of blood. 

Scientific dispute

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Positions on religious slaughter vary around the world - in the US, for instance, it is specifically defined as a humane method in the Humane Slaughter Act (1958) - but elsewhere several countries have already restricted or banned slaughtering unstunned animals.

Stunning has been obligatory in the European Union since 1979 in order to spare animals "avoidable pain or suffering", though most member states make exceptions for religious communities.

However, a ban on halal or kosher is not just anti-Islam or anti-semitic, it is also anti-market as the global halal market is estimated to be worth- 1.6 trillion dollars. While the global kosher beef market is expected to reach $248 billion by 2025.

Interestingly, nazis had prohibited slaughter without stunning or anesthesia under a law that was passed on April 21, 1933.

Some experts believe, the animals are bound to feel the pain of slaughter with or without stunning. 

For starters, stunning itself is painful as most slaughterhouses make animals unconscious by exposing them to electric shock or firing a bolt against the animal's head.

Captive bolts go wrong many times and animals bleed to death. Chickens are mostly gassed. In short, there is no humane way to kill an animal.