Move To Ban Kosher Slaughter Really Not About the Animals

Anti-Semitism Lurks Behind the European Fight on Shechitah

By Jacob Ari Labendz for The Jewish Daily Forward

A number of European countries have recently sought, with some success, to ban the ritual slaughter of four-legged animals by Muslims and Jews. Denmark did so in February, following Poland in January. Proponents framed the discussion in terms of animal welfare. They have a point. Executed properly, animals suffer less when stunned — that is, rendered unconscious — before they are slaughtered. Mainstream interpretations of Muslim and Jewish law prohibit this practice.

Yet the bans on ritual slaughter, which are meant to protect animals from pain, have much more to do with excluding certain ethnic and religious groups and should therefore raise concern, even among activists who would normally support them.

As a vegan, I oppose industrial meat processing for its abject cruelty and indifference to animals. I should therefore support all initiatives that in any way ameliorate the suffering of those animals our society has deemed livestock. Just like the proponents of the ban, I, too, prefer that butchers stun cattle before they brandish their knives. I am even sympathetic to the Australian solution of “stunning” livestock immediately after ritual slaughter, to minimize suffering, while remaining within the bounds of religious law. Finland has provided a similar accommodation for its Jewish community since 1934.

Nonetheless, I strongly oppose banning ritual slaughter. For me, this has little to do with religious freedom. Though a bedrock of our society, religious freedom also has its limits. We outlaw female genital mutilation and compel parents to provide medical care for their children, even if they oppose doing so on religious grounds. Considered in isolation, if stunning is a “kinder and gentler” way to kill, I would insist upon its adoption despite the religious objections.

Yet we must first answer a few questions. What does it mean for predominantly Christian and post-Christian societies to ban Muslim and Jewish ritual slaughter when cruelty is inherent to the entire system of industrial animal farming, from birth until death? Why have activists seized upon this issue so fervently, and, more importantly, so successfully?

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