A new demand to ban the ritual slaughter of animals in Holland for consumption by observant Jews and Moslems has been announced by the Netherlands Society for the Protection of Animals.
The group has urged the Deputy Minister of Agriculture to prohibit, effective immediately, the slaughter of animals for export without first stunning them and to ban ritual slaughter for local consumption within a three year period.
Should a local ban be instituted, it would affect only the small proportion of Holland’s 20,000 Jews who observe kashurt. But Jewish ritual slaughter for export is considerable. According to the Society for the Protection of Animals, as many as 90,000 calves and head of cattle were slaughtered according to Jewish ritual during the first quarter of this year for export, mainly to Israel.
The situation is the reverse for the Moslem community which numbers some 400,000 from Turkey, Morocco and other countries. While no ritually slaughtered animals are exported to Moslem countries, local consumption is high. Moreover, the Society pointed out, many animals consumed by Moslems are slaughtered by unlicensed slaughterers.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
