In May 2010, New Zealand
introduced a new Animal Welfare Code effectively banning
the kosher slaughter of animals, or
“shechita”. Agriculture Minister, David Carter, rejected
a recommendation from advisers that Jewish ritual slaughter of livestock be exempted from animal welfare rules under the Bill of Rights - which provides for freedom of religious practice. The new welfare code had a requirement that all commercially slaughtered animals first be stunned, and forbade the importation of raw kosher poultry. Carter argued the Code was required on humane grounds, citing a study that said the animals suffered pain. A study which
Dr Temple Grandin has subsequently
criticised. Jewish law prevents stunning on the basis that this is, in fact,
cruel to animals. Halal meat in New Zealand is stunned prior to slaughter. The Jewish community contested the Code through the courts as a
direct attack on the freedom to practise Judaism in New Zealand. Bans on ritual slaughter inevitably raise
the ugly spectre of anti-Semitism. In November, immediately before the case was due to be heard, Carter made an
abrupt u-turn. The practice of shechita on poultry was declared no longer illegal while the Government also agreed to negotiate the ban on sheep. New Zealand Jews will still have to import beef from Australia, where shechita is allowed. The reversal raised the
ire of animal rights groups, and raised questions about
Carter's motivations in considering the ban.
Previously.
posted by szechuan
on Dec 12, 2010 -
75 comments
In the 50's and 60's, more than a thousand sled dogs were slaughtered by RCMP officers and provincial police, some of them killed in ad hoc gas chambers. A recent
report from retired Quebec judge Jean-Jacques Croteau states that Ottawa and Quebec should apologize and compensate the affected communities for 'turning a blind eye' to the slaughter. You can hear
Makivik President,
Pita Aatami talking about it on CBC's
As It Happens
posted by Bartonius
on Mar 25, 2010 -
9 comments
"The Cove" , about the annual dolphins slaughter in Taiji, Japan, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. However, the movie has only been screened once in Japan, during the Tokyo International Film Festival in October.
Reaction from the town is a combination of "We're not doing anything wrong" and "It's none of your business what we do" with the added refrain of "We're protecting our cultural traditions" which is already familiar to anti-whaling activists and the like. Due to a media blackout, most Japanese people don't even know the hunt happens, but will the movie's increasingly high profile (It's even becoming
a TV show) and the negative publicity force a change?
More details on the making and content of the movie.
[more inside]
posted by donkeymon
on Mar 9, 2010 -
91 comments
The Humane Society of the United States rips Dick Cheney on
"canned hunting": "This wasn't a hunting ground. It was an open-air abattoir, and the vice president should be ashamed to have patronized this operation and then slaughtered so many animals," states Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of The Humane Society of the United States. "If the Vice President and his friends wanted to sharpen their shooting skills, they could have shot skeet or clay, not resorted to the slaughter of more than 400 creatures
planted right in front of them as animated targets." According to
another news source, "five-hundred pheasants were released in front of Cheney and his men; and the ten-man hunting party killed 417 of the birds. Vice President Cheney alone shot over 70 pheasants. The birds were then plucked and vacuum-packed in time for Cheney's afternoon flight back to Washington, DC."
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Dec 10, 2003 -
76 comments
