Grey wrote on Aug 19
th, 2013 at 2:12pm:
'Bleeding' an animal to death, isn't slashing its throat. If you put a small knick or incision into a main vein or artery by a sharp blade. The animal is petted, stroked and spoken to gently, unaware that its life is ebbing away, lack of oxygen sends it to sleep before death comes with a quick final shudder.
It's a relatively quick an painless way to die. Is it more merciful to allow an animal die at old age from a heart attack or from cancer?
With proper halal slaughter, the animals are not even supposed to see each other being killed because Muslims are not even supposed to scare animals. In the collection of Hadith of Al Hakim he says that one should not kill an animal in front of another animal. In fact, the Prophet even told people not to sharpen their knives in front of animal because even that might put terror in the animal's heart.
In the modern Western abattoirs, animals are often killed in front of each other which is a fairly terrifying ending for an animal.
Islam also recommends humane killing:
Quote:Verily God has enjoined goodness to everything; so when you kill, kill in a good way and when you slaughter, slaughter in a good way. So every one of you should sharpen his knife, and let the slaughtered animal die comfortably.
- Bukhari
http://spa.qibla.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1773&CATE=127