Just a brief note here on a topic I have come across a few times…
There is an opinion going around that meat cannot be considered Halal if the animals have been abused or kept in cruel conditions on farms or in meat factories, etc.
These are two separate issues. Obviously the ethical treatment of animals is commanded in Islam, and whoever does not comply with this, is committing an action which should be condemned and corrected. But the treatment of an animal prior to slaughter has no bearing on whether or not its meat is Halal if the method of slaughtering complies with Shari’ah. You cannot declare that such meat is forbidden to eat, even if you can say that the cruelty inflicted on the animal during its life is forbidden.
I have heard about extremely inhumane conditions suffered by animals in the process of mass production of meat, and there is no question that this is un-Islamic, and should be stopped. But if the method of slaughtering is correct, the meat is Halal. It is bid’ah to claim that it is a condition for meat to be considered halal that the animal led a happy life.