Pauline Hanson has taken senior bureaucrats to task over whether cows are still alive when they’re slaughtered under halal certification.
“It has been brought to my attention that under halal certification, these cattle are actually still alive when their throats are slit,” the One Nation leader put to agriculture officials during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
A department staffer said all cattle halal slaughtered in Australia are stunned beforehand.
But Senator Hanson said she had been told otherwise.
“I have been advised that is not the case. In one of the slaughterhouses the cow is still alive when it’s throat is slit,” she said.
The department vowed to investigate any incidents of animal welfare concerns.
But agriculture officer Narelle Clegg then stepped in to clarify the process.
“Senator Hanson, the other point to make is that animals are alive when they’ve been stunned. It’s just that they’re unconscious,” Ms Clegg said.
“So animals will be slaughtered when they’re alive, but they will have been stunned first. So they’re not like you and I at the moment, they’re like you and I when we’ve been knocked out.”