Scandinavian rabbis held a congress today for the first time in history to protest to the Swedish
Government that a proposed law for compulsory stunning of animals by electricity before slaughtering would violate the Jewish ritual code.
The rabbis adopted a memorandum appealing to the Swedish Government in the name of religious freedom to permit shechita, the orthodox Jewish method of slaughtering, without stunning. The memorandum declares that there is “no method of stunning which is reconciliable with Jewish ecclesiastic law.”
The note also emphasizes that shechita, in the opinion of a number of the most prominent scientists, is the most humane method of slaughtering animals.
Shechita is based on rules laid down in the Shulchan Aruch, code of orthodox Jewish observances.
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