The Hague, Netherlands – Lawmakers: ‘Shechita’ Ban In Place Unless Method Proven Not Painful

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    Representatives from the Jewish and Islamic communities.The Hague, Netherlands – Dutch lawmakers are set to ban centuries-old Jewish and Muslim traditions of slaughtering animals, but agreed Wednesday to a last-minute compromise offering religious groups exemptions, if they can prove their method of killing livestock does not cause additional suffering.

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    Centrist lawmakers from several parties — worried that their backing for the ban will cost them votes from Muslim and Jewish supporters — hammered out the compromise shortly before a final debate on the legislation.

    Stientje van Veldhoven of the centrist D66 party said the amendment gives religious groups “a chance to go and investigate what is possible instead of just telling them what they can’t do.”

    “The law as it was presented … ruled out any possible future development,” Van Veldhoven told national broadcaster NOS. “It ruled out that there could be a method other than stunning first that could prevent animals suffering.”

    But the compromise did little to appease Jewish and Muslim groups who have called the proposed ban an attack on religious freedom.

    “This is a crazy way of making laws — that we have to go and prove what we have long believed,” said Ronnie Eisenmann of the Amsterdam Jewish Community. “I think this has just opened the door to more discussion and uncertainty.”

    Marianne Thieme, leader of the Party for the Animals who introduced the legislation, was adamant the ban will now be introduced and left little hope that Jewish and Islamic butchers would be able to prove their method of slaughtering caused less suffering than if animals are stunned first.

    “It is purely hypothetical that there could ever be proof that slaughter without stunning could be more animal-friendly than with stunning, but the amendment gives religious groups the possibility to go and look for that evidence,” Thieme said.

    A final vote is expected later this week or early next week.

    As in most Western countries, Dutch law dictates that butchers must stun livestock — render it unconscious — before it can be slaughtered, to minimize the animals’ pain and fear. But an exception is made for meat that must be prepared under ancient Jewish and Muslim dietary laws and practices. These demand that animals be slaughtered while still awake, by swiftly cutting the main arteries of their necks with razor-sharp knives.

    The Party for the Animals, the first animal rights party elected to parliament anywhere in the world, proposed the ban on kosher and halal slaughter methods, saying they inflict unacceptable suffering on animals.

    Centrist parties such as D66 and Labor have been wrestling with how to balance their commitment to animal welfare with their long-standing support for religious freedoms.

    Religious-based parties, including the Christian Democrats part of the ruling coalition, have refused to support the bill, fearing it will undermine the country’s reputation as a bastion of religious tolerance.

    “Tolerance is a fundamental part of our national identity,” said Christian Democrat Henk-Jan Ormel. “It is remarkable that parties who claim to represent minorities now find animal rights more important than the rights of these minorities.”

    Jewish and Muslim groups tried to persuade lawmakers earlier this month that the ban would constitute a fundamental attack on the freedom to practice their faiths.

    “If pre-stunning were made compulsory under Dutch law, Jews would be unable to practice a central element of Jewish life which has been continuously practiced for over 3,000 years,” Britain’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, told a parliamentary committee.

    Around 1 million Muslims and 40,000-50,000 Jews live in the Netherlands, a nation of 16 million. Many of the country’s Muslims are Labor voters.

    Muslim representatives have said that if halal slaughter is banned by Dutch authorities Muslims will be forced to buy their meat from neighboring countries such as Belgium and Germany.

    If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims, it will be the first country outside New Zealand to do so in recent years. It will join the Scandinavian, Baltic countries and Switzerland, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War II anti-Semitism.


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    22 Comments
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    DavidMoshe
    Active Member
    DavidMoshe
    12 years ago

    Can anyone find me a particular method of slaughter that animals enjoy? Interesting that the Netherlands in general receives rather poor ratings on animal cruelty issues. Maybe they should clean up their own act…

    Babishka
    Member
    Babishka
    12 years ago

    Can they prove that tasering an animal between the eyes is not painful?

    Kemak
    Kemak
    12 years ago

    Did anybody ask the horses if they enjoy racing? Running like crazy for no reason.
    Or dogs if they enjoy being posted as guards
    Or do fish enjoy being caught?
    Or foxes being hunted?
    Or for that matter do parakeets enjoy in a cage?
    Or parrots living with their wings clipped?

    rebchuna
    rebchuna
    12 years ago

    Europe, the bastion of rights for all mankind…those countries who turned a blind eye to the slaughter of millions of jews, now have political parties dedicated to the welfare of animals?!?

    12 years ago

    Netherlands is a democratic nation and you can’t come and tell them anything about torah law.

    TLERMA
    TLERMA
    12 years ago

    See this for what it is, Ancient Jewish practice, the right to live according to Torah, is under attack by the Dutch. Couple this with San Francisco’s recent petition to outlaw Brit Milah, it is essentially a hallmark of the diaspora ending…. More of these anti-Jewish measures will essentially make it impossible to be a Yid in the Diaspora…..

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    12 years ago

    What a bunch of socialist liberal pigs! Let them prove that their way of killing is not painful! What did they do, ask the cow to moo once for yes and twice for no? I suggest they become the guinea pigs. Lets have them try out shchita on each other and report back to us.

    BoruchN
    BoruchN
    12 years ago

    Fascinating article!
    We have laws being passed based on supposition without the use of logic. Emotional arguments! That’s why a woman cannot be a judge.
    They ‘think’ with their hearts, forgetting logic and reason.
    Perhaps this is HaShem’s hand because of what happened in Israel? There were 16,000 signatures (Previousl/present?) against the mention of G-d, in any fashion, in the remembrance ceremonies of dead IDF soldiers.

    shmueldov
    shmueldov
    12 years ago

    im ok with this ban as long as they ban any form of animal racing, hunting, testing on animals, and anything that causes pain to humans as well, and the veterinary practice

    Aryeh
    Aryeh
    12 years ago

    Let them try “stunning” a member of parliament, and asking them about the comfort of the practice. “”Don’t tase me!”

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    12 years ago

    he who has pity on animals will end up killing humans

    Groningen
    Groningen
    12 years ago

    Freedom of religion in the Netherlands includes a lot, but the constitution makes clear that freedom of religion is not allowing violation of the law, as such it has no importance. To #8 , telling people all you want about Torah law is definitely part of the Freedom of Religion in the Dutch view, as is the right not to listen. The exemption allowing Jews (since 1919, to a lesser extent after the Shoah) shechita, was in 1975 adapted to allow Muslims their thing too, and that is more or less the problem.
    Where Jewish butchers were the majority in the Dutch ruminant meat bussiness in the 19th century, often the start of new Jewish communities, the Muslims simply do not have that kind of history in the Netherlands and the Jews do not have the numbers.

    Shmueldov, the PvdD will try to do that, but unless that is anti (Muslim) religion, I do not think they will get the votes for that. The Democrat Liberal Socialist (i.e. secular block) proposal seems to be a bit of a challenge, &#8 220;&#8 221;If it is as humane, as you claim it is,prove it.&#8 221; That may well mean that at least kosher poultry is likely to stay available.

    12 years ago

    The sitra achra always finds a way to attack Torah and yiddishkeit. They call it animal right, babies rights not to be circumcised, but the bottom line is:
    the reshaim have a great nose for how to attack Torah.
    We need to be equally dedicated to Torah and then hashem will make us emerge victorious.

    basmelech
    basmelech
    12 years ago

    Bottom line is these are anti religious laws and have nothing to do with being humane. If one is G-D fearing, then he knows that what the Torah commands us to do is the right way. Hashem said we must shecht our meat dayand perform bris milah on the 8th day, so that is the only way and it has nothing to do with being humane – it is a G-D given law. Anyone against such laws is not a believer in G-D.

    Yaakov2
    Yaakov2
    12 years ago

    Hunting is such a sport by the Goyim that I can’t imagine that it could be outlawed in any country (yet outlawd by Halacha).

    Do they have a law that the animal must first be stunned before it’s hunted 🙂 ? Why not?

    Do they stun the fish before they pull them out of the water, to suffer a slow throws of death or does a fish not deserve any animal rights?

    If you dislike the animal, if the animal is even hated, like a mouse or a rat, then it may be tortured to death?

    Why do animal lovers permit mouse and rat poison instead of humanely stunning the animal first, according to the same standard.

    Or perhaps the animal rights-psyched-up-people have no pitty on any animal whom they dislike like a mouse or rat.

    To feed a mouse poison, where it does a slow death, bleading to death because of internal and external bleading is the worst torture of how to kill it.

    The real reason why the animal rights groups don’t advocate pitty on the poor little -sweet, cuite, tortured-to-death mouse or rat is because it’s not so sweet looking adnot so cuite looking.

    They know they will not never get any public sympathy for that, so they are hypocritical for selfish, political reasons.

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    12 years ago

    This month’s legal developments in summary:

    bris milah: bad
    shechita: bad
    homosexuality: good

    oilem hofuch

    Groningen
    Groningen
    12 years ago

    Hunting Laws, it may be prohibited by halacha, which I rather doubt, if the wild animals are ruining a Jewish farmer’s fields, if foxes kill his chickens, I would say that it is allowed, but certainly not as hobby.

    Hunting is hugely unpopular in the Netherlands, certainly among the people supporting the prohibition of ritual slaughter. I mean can you imagine country, where the response of the hunters to the idea of opening the summer goose hunt, five species, would be, “don’t wanna”?

    The big development NOW, is that it turns out that the research done showing that it hurts to have your throat cut, was done on a mere three calves, slaughtered in accordance with no religion at all. I guess that even if his law passes and is not thrown out by the Senate, an exemption for kashrut is well possible, but getting it will be incredibly expensive.