Netherlands Halal and Kosher Ban

[mushroom25]

the Dutch parliament is shortly expected to approve a ban on Halal and Kosher methods of animal slaughter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-15610142
a matter of animal welfare to be applauded? or right wing religious intolerance to be abhorred?

[woofgang]

or an import opportunity?

[DTCwordfan]

will be chucked out by the EC - goes against Human Rights. Forget the animal rights....But one thing - the Muslims and Jewish folk standing united, who would believe that...

[NOX]

Good- and I say that as someone whose ex partner and therefore children are Jewish- and I know they'll agree.

[Gromit]

Great news. We have an export opportunity.

[ladybirder]

I approve because of the animal welfare issue.

[emmie]

well i would have thought that it should be applauded, the animal rights activists that care for the whale, panda, and other fluffy types seem absent in their condemnation of this rather cruel method of killing animals. Though i am sure some might say does it matter, it's dead which ever way.

[B00]

Good.

Though, i've seen some shocking footages (that a word?) of non halal abattoirs and sometimes their treatment of the animals they get leaves a lot to be desired too.

[emmie]

Boo, i have as well, but one has to believe that most aren't like that.
But in this age of mass produced goods, animals are just that, chickens, pigs, cows, lifespan quite short for most

[venator]

Kosher and halal slaughter require the animal to be bled to death with cut throats, rather than being humanely killed.

Ok?

[emmie]

Venator, i know that, as do most on here i'm sure.

[B00]

Well aware of the fact Venator, point of your post?

[boxtops]

They can be stunned beforehand though - that is allowed these days.

If the Dutch do ban it, it'll be interesting - our butcher imports his halal chicken from Holland.

[B00]

Not sure if this has any bearing on the topic...but I was in my local KFC last night and there was a sign from a specific date in November (forgot which one) they'd no longer be serving Halal chicken.

[emmie]

Boo, how would one know, and quite frankly i am fed up that we have very few butchers that are not halal, our large supermarket is too expensive to shop for meats.

[birdie1971]

And about time too.

Not stunning the animal before cutting its throat is clearly going to cause the animal pain and suffering. The proof is self evident – unconscious animals and humans do not feel pain. That is why we anaesthetise people before performing surgery upon them – to render them unconscious so that the invasive procedure causes them no pain.

Some scientific studies have been done on this matter...

http://www.grandin.co...ning.causes.pain.html

http://www.newscienti...igious-slaughter.html


Those people who argue against a ban do so because they think that their religion is being attacked as they cannot slaughter animals in the manner prescribed in their holy books. So what? There are a great many things that were permissible and even desirable when these ancient books were written. However, some of these practices are now illegal in civilised countries such as polygamy, state-sanctioned murder, child marriage, torture and genocide.

It's called progress.

[tamborine]

Halal meat is having the blood drained from arteries & veins. Stunning animals before slaughter doesn't stop the blood draining.

[birdie1971]

^^^ Not true.

Halal (and Kosher) means killing the animal whist it is still conscious and whilst prayers are spoken by an appropriately religious slaughter-man.

Stunning the animal before killing it stops the animal from suffering during the slaughter which is whole point of the proposed ban.

Religions incantations can still be said over the stunned and unconscious animal before it is dispatched. If this proposed ban becomes law, nothing has changed except the consciousness of the animal at the moment of its death.

[tamborine]

Or a tape of prayers being played during the ritual. Farms round here cant wait for a tardy prayermen.

[birdie1971]

In the linked video, Abdul the butcher says, “... If this ban is implemented in full, I'll have no choice but to stop completely because if there's no Halal meat, I'll be forced to give up. I'll have to stop being a butcher.”

I find Abdul's statement ridiculous. Why would he have no choice but to give up butchery if the ban is implemented? Is there a requirement in the Koran that expressly forbids muslims to handle meat that hasn't been slaughtered to Halal specifications? No there isn't. Does the Koran expressly state that a muslim cannot eat any meat that has been slaughtered in a non-Halal way? No it doesn't.

Abdul the butcher is talking complete tripe. Halal tripe, of course.

[birdie1971]

Just to be absolutely clear. The word Halal simply means, “lawful”. When talking about meat that is to be consumed, Halal has come to mean meat from animals that have been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic scripture.