Poland Bans Ritual Slaughter of Animals

Online magazine Commentary and many others have been discussing the decision of the Polish government to ban ritual slaughter of animals, in accordance to humane slaughter practices, which many EU countries have recently been leaning towards. For Poland however, this decision is a controversial one, in light of its history and significance to the Jewish community in the country and world-wide:

The news that the Sejm, the Polish parliament, has rejected a government-sponsored bill to protect ritual slaughter, in both its Jewish and Muslim variants, suggests that, sadly, Jews and Poles are facing opposite directions when it comes to religious freedom. As a result of the vote, which comes on the heels of last year’s supreme court ruling that ritual slaughter, or shechita, is no longer exempted from requirements to stun animals prior to killing them, the production of kosher meat has effectively been banned in Poland.

[…] Poland is not the first country to ban shechita – European states from Norway to Switzerland have also prohibited its practice–but its historic position as the cradle of the Holocaust means that extra scrutiny of any legal measures against Jewish rituals is inevitable.

6 comments

  • […] Poland Bans Ritual Slaughter of AnimalsGlobal Voices OnlineOnline magazine Commentary and many others have been discussing the decision of the Polish government to ban ritual slaughter of animals, in accordance to humane slaughter practices, which many EU countries have recently been leaning towards.Message for the Polish GovernmentJ-Wire Jewish Australian News Service […]

  • […] Poland Bans Ritual Slaughter of AnimalsGlobal Voices OnlineOnline magazine Commentary and many others have been discussing the decision of the Polish government to ban ritual slaughter of animals, in accordance to humane slaughter practices, which many EU countries have recently been leaning towards.Message for the Polish GovernmentJ-Wire Jewish Australian News Service […]

  • Bart Poborowski

    We as Polish natiom bare no responsibility for german Holocaust camps on our occupied lands.Our people died there too.Jews have to respect our ways and our laws.If they dont like it they could always leave.

  • Garett

    You know I agree law is law in America there are laws that suck but sometimes you just have to go with it. If you don’t like it no one is holding you back to move

  • disqus_Pb5yBxXpB8

    yeah, there really are lots of stupid, sucky laws. But why did Poland go out of their way to BAN shechita, when they could merely have required humane slaughter? Shechita was for a long while more humane and more health-oriented than most other practices. And now, if not all slaughterers engage in pre-kill stunning, they could be required to. As far as I can see, that is the only step that would be required to make religious slaughter as humane as any other. Why don’t they just pass a law banning the eating of meat? Or a law forbidding animals to kill & eat each other? At what point does mindless compassion arrive at total idiocy?

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