How to kill a fish (or sheep)

The recent uproar about Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol clubbing a halibut to death on her reality-TV show sparked the question: "how to kill a fish?"
Every weekend I visit the nearby market to buy ingredients for my Sunday dinner parties. By now a celebrated event among my Chinese friends, who eagerly show off their cooking skills in my kitchen, much to my appreciation. We usually go to the market together, around 5 in the afternoon, to buy vegetables, meat, and fish.
One of the best things in China, in my opinion, is the almost 24-hour availability of fresh fish. And with "fresh" I mean "live". Sold alive and kicking, and killed only minutes before cooking, by either the vendor (upon request) or by yourself at home. I usually go for the first option. It's only a two-minute walk home after the kill, so it feels almost like you did it yourself.
Witnessing the actual killing of the soon-to-be-eaten chosen one still ignites a twitch on my face, as it happens more or less in the same way as in Palin's TV show: a firm blow on the head with a blunt object. At the market this is the flat side of the ubiquitous Chinese kitchen blade, a square knife of considerable size and weight.
After the hit, the fish is at least unconscious, but probably not clinically dead. As in Palin's documentary, the heart of the poor animal keeps on beating for a considerable amount of time (minutes rather than seconds), unless it is yanked out with the rest of the guts.
The larger fish get a different treatment: their head is cut off in one well-directed swing of the blade, and then the severed head (which is sold separately, at a higher price per pound than the body) is put on display facing skyward. The most revolting part of the execution is the dance of the severed head on the surface. It's hard to describe how the fish head keeps moving its gills for several minutes, sometimes so vigourously it actually jumps. Mouth opening and closing, eyes staring at you while you watch in horror. This is a daily scene everywhere in China, and probably in many other countries as well.

Which brings me to the story about a bull which escaped its fate by running away from a Halal slaughterhouse in Holland last week. The said animal was sedated by a vet after being lured into a tram garage, using a shotgun with a tranquilizer load, and brought to a farm until it was decided what to do with it. The meat was not fit for consumption anymore after being contaminated by the sedative. A public initiative was quickly started to raise money to save the animal from a certain death. In the end the raised money was not needed, because the owner of the bull donated the animal to a cuddling farm for pigs named "The promised pig land". The climax of the story is the promise of the Halal butcher to come lie down with the pigs one day. A remarkably open-minded statement from a devoted Muslim!
The subject of Halal slaughtering of animals (mostly sheep) has been put forward by Dutch political party Partij voor de Dieren, who took the opportunity to propose a ban on ritual slaughter of animals according to Muslim practice, which involves slicing the throat of the animal and letting it bleed to death. There's a similar discussion going on in Belgium at the time.