What is the ruling on a slaughtered animal if the slaughterer begins to skin it before its soul has departed?

The questioner: This is the case in some slaughterhouses in Muslim countries today, where they slaughter chickens, sheep, or cows in bulk, and they cut up the animal and skin it before its soul departs?

The Shaykh: Yes.
This issue actually has two aspects: one concerning the slaughterer, and one concerning the one who eats these slaughtered animals. The first aspect: if the slaughterer performs a lawful slaughter; that is, he drains the blood from the vein—as is customary—then this slaughter makes the animal lawful. As long as the animal is made lawful, it means it is permissible for the eater to eat it. But there remains another matter concerning the slaughterer: if he begins to skin it before it has exhaled all its breath, this is tormenting the animal, and this is, of course, not permissible in the Islamic Shari'ah. However, this does not make the animal forbidden to eat; rather, it makes this action forbidden for him. An example, as you know, is what came in some hadiths that I extracted in the first volume of "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah" under "Kindness to Animals": that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a man dragging a slaughtered animal, intending to slaughter it next to its sister. He said to him: . This is kindness to the animal; it is not permissible for this sister to be slaughtered in front of that one while it is playing and so on. So if he slaughters it in front of its sister with a lawful slaughter, eating it is permissible, but his action is forbidden, and this issue is exactly the same. Yes, that is right.
And I witnessed in Britain—when it was decreed for me to go there, which was about forty years ago, Allah knows best—a slaughterhouse in the Islamic manner, and some modern tools were used there. A Pakistani Muslim student of knowledge, whom we had met in Jeddah on some occasions of Hajj or 'Umrah, invited us to visit him there in Britain in a village about one hundred and twenty kilometers from London. So we went to him, and he showed us the sections of the slaughterhouse. In one section are the sheep and the animals he intends to slaughter, and next to it is another empty section where two men stand at one end. One of them takes the animal and presents it to the slaughterer, who lays it down and slaughters it. As soon as it is slaughtered, it is hung on hooks. These hooks are suspended on a rail, which is pushed so that it moves about five or six meters down the slope of the rail. Then it moves to another room that no one sees except the one walking with it. There, a person waits for the animal, and the distance is such that, by their experience, it appears that the animal is finished. As he waits for its arrival, he begins what? He skins it, and his job is only skinning. He removes the skin and throws it into a barrel he has, then pushes it another distance of about six meters. There, another person cuts open its belly and extracts the intestines, liver, and so on, and he sprays water with great force by strong pumping, so it comes out shining with a clean shine. Then he gives it the final push, and it goes to the scale. It is registered head-on and written on it, and the customers are standing in a final room there, each taking a ready, clean animal and paying its price because it is written on it.
This Muslim brother says: he has a chicken coop—also—where he slaughters chickens—also—in the Islamic manner, whereas there, as you know, they are strangled. He says the English come and buy from him, whether chickens or sheep meat; because they know that it is healthier than the meat of the disbelieving English and others.
So the point is that if it is slaughtered, it becomes lawful, but it is forbidden to begin skinning it except after it has exhaled its last breath.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.