The metal door on her right lifts, and she flops onto a metal table that transports her to the kill floor. The table tilts so that she flips, and her underside faces Munzoor Ali, the slaughterman. After he sanitizes his medium-sized knife and rinses his hands of the blood from the previous cow, he approaches the unfeeling number 262. Ali, a practicing Muslim, turns toward Mecca, the holy city of Islam in Western Saudi Arabia. Quickly and fluidly, he creates a one-foot long incision from the jaw along the neck.
Blood surges from the wound to the table to the once-white floor.
Whatever comes near, floor grates swallow. The floor, though white and textured like the walkway around a public swimming pool, appears stained a murky red until the evening cleaning. Draining all the blood is one aspect required to make the meat Halal, or permitted for Muslim consumption. Halal is part of the Islamic dietary laws as defined in the Holy Koran and other sacred Islamic texts. The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America's website includes a list of requirements to make food Halal.