Just as a moratorium was announced this month on banning kosher slaughter in Sweden, a similar problem is being reported in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands Council of State — the country’s highest decision-making body on matters of administrative law — heard a petition last Thursday by the Netherlands Society for the Protection of Animals that ritual slaughtering of animals by Jews for the purpose of export be forbidden.
The animal protection society has repeatedly tried to have ritual slaughtering by Jews forbidden entirely.
Holland, like Sweden, practices the stunning of animals before killing and regards kosher slaughter as inhumane — the exact opposite of the intended purpose of kosher slaughter.
Religious Jews in Holland are now few in number, and the demand for kosher food is reportedly negligible here.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews here largely import their meat from nearby Antwerp, Belgium, home to a sizable community of Hasidic and other Orthodox Jews.
The animal protection society now wants the Council of State to order the Ministry of Agriculture to withdraw its license for Jewish ritual slaughter.
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.
