Dutch ritual slaughter ban referred for study
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2012:
DEN HAAG, The Netherlands— A proposed ban on slaughtering
animals without pre-stunning that cleared the Dutch House of
Representatives 116-30 in June 2011 was on December 20, 2011 amended
in the Senate into a pledge that undersecretary for agriculture Henk
Bleker’s office will draft standards to ensure that halal and kosher
slaughter, practiced by Muslims and Jews, are done in a manner that
minimizes animal suffering. Pre-stunning has traditionally been
interpreted by most Judaic and Islamic religious authorities–though
some differ–as a violation of the requirements of Mosaic and Islamic
religious law that animals be conscious when their throats are
swiftly cut with a sharp blade.
Proposed by the Party for the Animals, which holds two seats
in the House and one in the Senate, and is a part of the coalition
government, the ban on slaughter without pre-stunning gained
momentum after being endorsed by the far right Party for Freedom,
whose focal issue is discouraging Islamic immigration. About one
million of the Dutch population of 16 million are immigrants from
Islamic nations.