ABSTRACT
In a short time a fierce political and public debate arose that filled the pages of newspapers and television news programmes for months. The Party for the Animals (PvdD) introduced a private members’ bill that would make it obligatory to render livestock especially cows or sheep unconscious before they could be ritually slaughtered according to Jewish and Islamic practices. Jewish law, the halacha, is unambiguous on this point, however, specifying that the shochet must kill the animal instantly by drawing a sharp knife across its throat, making a single incision. Stunning is not permitted. The bill therefore meant that the existing practice of ritual slaughter in order to produce kosher meat would be banned.
