THE Dutch Parliament has passed a bill banning the slaughter of livestock without stunning it first, removing an exemption that allowed Jews and Muslims to butcher animals according to their centuries-old dietary rules.
If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.
However, the bill must still pass the Senate, which is unlikely before the summer recess, and the cabinet said the law may be unenforceable in its current form due in part to ambiguity introduced in a last-minute amendment.
If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims, it will be the second country, after New Zealand, to do so in recent years. It will join Switzerland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War II anti-Semitism.
Marianne Thieme of the Party for the Animals, the world's first animal rights party to win seats in a national Parliament, welcomed the approval of the bill that she had first introduced in 2008, and said she was now prepared to defend it in the Senate.
''It's a great honour,'' she said. She has argued that sparing animals needless pain and distress outweighs religious groups' rights to follow slaughter practices ''no longer of our time''.
But the threat of a ban has led to outcry from Jewish and Muslim groups, who say it infringes on their right to freedom of religion.
A solid majority of Dutch voters say they support the ban, and Parliament voted for the ban by a margin of 116-30. Support for the ban came from the political left, which sees ritual slaughter as inhumane, and from the anti-immigration right, which sees it as foreign and barbaric.
AP
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/dutc...l-slaughter-20110629-1gr2k.html#ixzz1QuV4f7dg
If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.
However, the bill must still pass the Senate, which is unlikely before the summer recess, and the cabinet said the law may be unenforceable in its current form due in part to ambiguity introduced in a last-minute amendment.
If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims, it will be the second country, after New Zealand, to do so in recent years. It will join Switzerland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War II anti-Semitism.
Marianne Thieme of the Party for the Animals, the world's first animal rights party to win seats in a national Parliament, welcomed the approval of the bill that she had first introduced in 2008, and said she was now prepared to defend it in the Senate.
''It's a great honour,'' she said. She has argued that sparing animals needless pain and distress outweighs religious groups' rights to follow slaughter practices ''no longer of our time''.
But the threat of a ban has led to outcry from Jewish and Muslim groups, who say it infringes on their right to freedom of religion.
A solid majority of Dutch voters say they support the ban, and Parliament voted for the ban by a margin of 116-30. Support for the ban came from the political left, which sees ritual slaughter as inhumane, and from the anti-immigration right, which sees it as foreign and barbaric.
AP
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/dutc...l-slaughter-20110629-1gr2k.html#ixzz1QuV4f7dg
