Minister claims animal rights come before welfare.

Denmark’s government has brought in a ban on the religious slaughter of animals for the production of halal and kosher meat, after years of campaigning from welfare activists.

The change to the law, announced last week and effective as of yesterday, has been called “anti-Semitism” by Jewish leaders and “a clear interference in religious freedom” by the non-profit group Danish Halal.

European regulations require animals to be stunned before they are slaughtered, but grants exemptions on religious grounds. For meat to be considered kosher under Jewish law or halal under Islamic law, the animal must be conscious when killed.

Yet defending his government’s decision to remove this exemption, the minister for agriculture and food Dan Jørgensen told Denmark’s TV2 that “animal rights come before religion”.

Commenting on the change, Israel’s deputy minister of religious services Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan told the Jewish Daily Forward: “European anti-Semitism is showing its true colours across Europe, and is even intensifying in the government institutions.”

Al Jazeera quoted the monitoring group Danish Halal, which launched a petition against the ban, as saying it was “a clear interference in religious freedom limiting the rights of Muslims and Jews to practice their religion in Denmark”.

The ban has divided opinions in the country, particularly after it recently made headlines for animal welfare policy after Copenhagen Zoo slaughtered the “surplus” young male giraffe Marius.

On Twitter, David Krikler (@davekriks) wrote: “In Denmark butchering a healthy giraffe in front of kids is cool but a kosher/halal chicken is illegal.”

Byakuya Ali-Hassan (@SirOthello) said it was “disgusting” that “the same country that slaughtered a giraffe in public to be fed to lions… is banning halal meat because of the procedures”.

Mogens Larsen (@Moq72), from Aalborg in Denmark, tweeted: “Denmark bans the religious slaughter of animals. Not even zoo lions are allowed a taste of halal giraffe.”

Last year politicians in Britain said they would not be outlawing religious slaughter despite “strong pressure” from the RSPCA, the National Secular Society and other activists.

>shooting in copenhagen
>bans halal meat

based denmark

Good guy Denmark.

Honestly, I think the Jews need to seriously reconsider how they go about slaughtering animals. In a small slaughterhouse, the process is relatively humane and there has been research demonstrating that the animals are largely unaware that their throat was even slit (due to how finely sharpened the knife needs to be), but when attempts are made to industrialize the process it results in a very frightening experience for the animals. I'm not sure how Muslims do it for halal meat, but I imagine they have similar processes.

So yeah, obviously it's anti-semitic because it specifically rules out Jewish and Muslim practices, but that doesn't necessarily make it reprehensible.

Honestly, I think the Jews need to seriously reconsider how they go about slaughtering animals. In a small slaughterhouse, the process is relatively humane and there has been research demonstrating that the animals are largely unaware that their throat was even slit (due to how finely sharpened the knife needs to be), but when attempts are made to industrialize the process it results in a very frightening experience for the animals.

It usually takes the animal a few minutes to bleed out, while not stunning them leaves their spinal cord in tact along with their ability to feel pain up until the moment of death.

What are farming practices like in Denmark?

This is all well and good, but improving the living conditions would be the more logical approach in terms of "animal rights".

Not sure how useful this is. I mean what is a humane way to kill a cow. A knife to the neck be painful but from what i remember is that when slaughtering everything till spinal cord is cut. Also stunning does not really help either way as well a couple animals can survive it.

Honestly I just feel that industrialization of the process is the most inhumane way to slaughter animals. Plus the discussion on what is humane slaughter or not is a whole discussion we will never come to an agreement with.

Sadly the question of being humane i feel is about people not wanting to know how their food is made. The concept of a knife being used to slit the throat seems graphic so is considered inhumane. What I feel after thinking about this topic is the humane slaughtering has become more about creating an illusion that we are doing something good with the way we kill an animal. Seriously, no matter how we make it pretty, it is still a brutal practice, and I am talking about killing.

Personally i feel that people should be more connected to how their meat is made. At least to make it clear that an animal was sacrificed for this process. Hell I might ask, do you guys think that the castration of calf's by ripping their balls of with your teeth is humane? Cause it is considered humane and widely practiced.

there's really no humane way to end the life of a complex organism.

Sure there is.

Just not when you've bred them specifically for that purpose.