New Dutch Campaign to Outlaw Kosher Slaughtering

If the recent rise in anti-Semitism were not enough for the small Jewish community in the Netherlands, a proposed ban on ritual slaughter is creating angst for the small number of Jews who eat kosher.

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority advised the government to ban ritual slaughter of animals, citing pain and suffering caused to them in the process.“

Kosher Today has learned that while other proposed bans have failed in the past, the newest threat has the support from across the political spectrum.

In 2012, the Dutch Senate scrapped legislation passed the previous year that amounted to a ban on kosher and halal slaughter because it required all animals be rendered unconscious before they are killed, a violation of Jewish law. Both Muslim and Jewish religious law requires animals be conscious when their necks are cut.

Kosher Today has learned that kosher slaughter in the Netherlands involves only 60 animals a week. The sources blamed overzealous liberal veterinarians for inciting the country against kosher slaughtering,