"My personal experience of slaughterhouses is that none of them - ranging from large international export companies, through to a small family run unit doing about 10 cows, and 100 or so sheep and pigs a day, have been anywhere as bad as I had been led to believe beforehand."
I guess that all depends on how bad you expected it to be, and what constitutes bad for you... of course, there are variations also between countries, and abbatoirs.
But otherwise, thanks for the point and the informed opinion - as you say, what constitutes halal may vary depending on how close or far from the original concept they are prepared to 'bend' their convictions. I am surprised you say they stunned them first - by my understanding a big part of halal was that they must be conscious prior to slaughter. But, it doesn't surprise me. The main focus of slaughterhouses is speed of slaughter vs quality of meat (both related to economic benefits for the slaughterhouse), not compassion or conviction, unless that translates to profit too, (which it doesn't) ...
The other things, of course, which contributes to stress, is the journey from the farm to the slaughterhouse, and the time spent there prior to slaughter, and how 'comfortable' that is for them. Its probably nearly impossible to get that period completely comfortable for the animal, since familiarity is the key to comfort and a stress free environment for such animals. A cow version of The Ritz still wouldn't be as good as their own patch of land...
In Oz, so long as they're registered, you can still get your animals slaughtered on the farm (I have a feeling this might be logistical as much as anything, because I think the rules are that you can still only get it done for personal use. So you can't sell from the farm direct to the local butcher, for example). I'm not sure the rules here, but the idea of local slaughter on the farm, in the animal's familiar environment would certainly be a more compassionate means of slaughter (done professionally), and would probably draw higher prices if the importance of the animal's welfare prior to slaughter were made known (not to mention meat quality).
cheers,
Derek