Jewish ritual slaughter isn’t cruel, says the Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism. Dutch MPs are soon to hold a second debate on a bill that would outlaw ritual slaughter in which animals have their throats cut without first being stunned. The proposal comes from animal rights party the Party for the Animals.
Jewish organisations are calling on MPs to vote against the private member’s bill. They say a ban on ritual slaughter would infringe on freedom of religion, and go against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Party for the Animals, which holds two seats in the 150-seat parliament, argues that the religious laws were made at a time when there were no acceptable means of stunning animals prior to slaughter.
According to Willem Koster of the Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism, however, animals hardly know what’s happening to them if they’re killed according to Jewish ritual, known as shechita.
“The windpipe and blood vessels are cut through in one with a sharp knife. The blood pressure drops and the brain stops functioning. The animal is therefore sufficiently unconscious that it isn’t aware of the process.”
Muslims
Ritual slaughter is more common in the Netherlands to provide halal meat for Muslims. According to estimates there are only around 100 Jews in the country who only eat ritually slaughtered meat.
But the Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism says Jewish groups aren’t campaigning against the bill jointly with Muslim organisations “because we don’t know what their religious laws are”.
The coalition parties are against a ritual slaughter ban, but the bill has the backing of the opposition Socialist Party, Green Left and D66 parties. They are joined by the anti-Islam Freedom Party, on which the coalition relies for its majority. But as yet the bill is still opposed by a majority of MPs.
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Dr.Temple Grandin approves of the long knife used in shechita slaughter for Kosher Meat, but has reservations over the short knife used in halal slaughter!
Here is why...
http://www.grandin.com/ritual/slaughter.without.stunning.causes.pain.html The argument that Grandin has is that the shechita long knife seemed to be painless as there was no reaction in any of the animals observed... unlike the animals observed in halal slaughter with a shorter knife. The special long knife used in kosher slaughter is important. When the knife is used correctly on adult cattle, there was little or no behavioral reaction (Grandin, 1992, 1994). Barnett et al (2007) reported similar reactions in chickens. Only four chickens out of 100 had a behavioral reaction. Grandin (1994) reported that the behavioral reaction of cattle was greater when a hand was waved in their faces compared to well done Kosher slaughter. All of the cattle were extensively raised animals with a large flight zone. They were all held in an upright position in a restraint box. The results of this study clearly show that the use of a knife with a 24.5 cm long blade definitely causes pain. Another factor that may have had an effect on pain was the use of a grinding wheel to sharpen the knife instead of a whet stone. There is a need to repeat this experiment with a Kosher knife and a skilled shochet who obeys all the Kosher rules for correct cutting.
We need to get to the Truth of all this. Dr.Temple Grandin is autistic & is unlikely to lie. Her life has been devoted to getting rid of bad practice & cruelty in Abattoirs. Throughout her time in the Department of Animal Science at Colorado State University she has introduced new ideas to bring animal welfare and conditions in abattoirs into the 21st Century. She is respected worldwide and her work is ongoing. We cannot ignore what she says when she says that in the New Zealand Study the knife used was much shorter than the special long knives that are used in Kosher slaughter and use of a shorter knife may possibly have had an effect on the painfulness of the cut. Furthermore, Dr. Temple Grandin has new up to date equipment, so the EEG (brainwave) method was used, which can determine when an animal is feeling pain.