RNW, 15 April 2011
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| (Photo: Alf Bilder) |
A parliamentary majority is putting the final touches on a bill proposing the ban of ritual slaughter in the Netherlands. The proposal was put forward by the Animal Rights Party to make slaughter practices for kosher and halal meat illegal.
by Marianne Thieme
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Marianne Thieme About the author Marianne Thieme is leader of the Animal Rights Party and a member of parliament.She writes a weekly blog which is translated into nine different languages on animal welfare, www.partyfortheanimals.nl. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to have an Animal Rights Party member elected to parliament. The Animal Rights Party (Partij van de Dieren in Dutch) strives for com- passion, personal freedom, sustain- ability and personal responsibility for the planet and its people. |
The detailed instructions given in both the Qur'an and the Torah on how people should treat animals tell us not to show cruelty to them. The holy books describe how animal products should be prepared in such a way that no suffering is inflicted on humans or animals.
3000 years ago
Islamic and Jewish traditions were way ahead when it came to treating animals well. But that does not change the fact that, based on new insights, their methods of slaughter are in need of reform today. Religious believers can no longer justify a method that was ahead of its time 3000 years ago. Taking the best slaughter method that was on offer 3000 years ago with the insights of the time doesn’t have to be replicated in today’s society.
A range of techniques for stunning animals before slaughter are available. Extensive research has been conducted on the extent to which animals experience pain during slaughter – the most dramatic event in an animal’s life. It is important to be able to guarantee all animals that the slaughter procedure will be as painless as possible and will be carried out with the least possible distress.
That safeguard has already been embodied in Dutch law, but there is an exemption for Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter. There is very little support in the Netherlands or in a range of other countries – whether in political circles or among the public at large – for upholding this exemption. Turkey has announced plans to abolish ritual slaughter from the end of this year. The practice has already been banned in Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia and Iceland and New Zealand.
Curb freedom of religion
While anyone who practises a religion has the right to their own religious truths, it doesn’t give them the right to violate the welfare of another human or an animal. So, where necessary, it is the task of the government to intervene and curb freedom of religion. If you’re religious, you might cling to certain views on homosexuality, for example, but that should never lead to discrimination against fellow citizens.
Luckily, the whole debate on ritual slaughter is also being held in religious circles. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly (which comprises 1,600 conservative rabbis) in New York issued a statement in 2001 entitled “A Stunning Matter”. The declaration said that the Torah leaves the matter of stunning animals before shechita (Jewish slaughter) open and that there is no need to ban the practice. Within the Muslim community, the option of stunning before slaughter is also garnering support.
More:
- Ritual slaughter: animal suffering or religious freedom?
- Ritual slaughter controversy unites Jews and Muslims
No to religious exclusive rights
Constant references to legal practices or questionable findings in the past are not conducive to producing a well-balanced debate. It is no longer possible or permissible to continue with ritual slaughter given that all independent researchers conclude that anaesthetising animals leads to less pain. These findings have been backed up by veterinary experts.
The development of ethics is a dynamic process and not an exclusive privilege of the religious. The whole concept of animal welfare rights has now been established in mainstream society; and so, the next logical step is to embody that development in political decision-making. That justifies an abolition of unanaesthetised ritual slaughter. It would signify a great breakthrough in the struggle to treat animals in the Netherlands with more compassion.
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Do Animals Reincarnate? - NOV 22, 2010 (Kuthumi channeled by Lynette Leckie-Clark)
"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)
".... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening...."
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