The enlightened country of Denmark has banned Muslim Halal and Jewish Kosher slaughtering, also known as shechita.
Denmark's Agriculture and Food Minister Dan Jørgensen signed a regulation at the end of last week banning both religious slaughter of animals for the production of halal and kosher meat.
Ironically, there isn't a single Kosher slaughterhouse in Denmark, so apparently they mean to even prohibit importing Kosher meat from outside the country.
The change to the law has been called “anti-Semitism” by Jewish leaders and “a clear interference in religious freedom” by the non-profit group Danish Halal.
EU regulations require animals to be stunned before they are slaughtered, but grants exemptions on religious grounds. For meat to be considered kosher under Jewish law or halal under Islamic law, the animal must be conscious when killed.
Yet defending his government’s decision to remove this exemption, the minister for agriculture and food Dan Jørgensen told Denmark’s TV2 that “animal rights come before religion”.
In Denmark and several other European countries, there are a lot of things that apparently come even before animal rights.
Sex for profit, for example. Not only is bestiality (or, to use the term its proponents prefer 'zoophelia') perfectly legal, but so is animal prostitution, something I first wrote about back in 2006.
On the Internet, Danish animal owners advertise openly that they have sex with animals for sale, and it's perfectly legal, so there's no intervention from police or other authorities, Danish newspaper 24timer reports.
In interviewing the animal owners, the newspaper was told that the animals involved have many years of experience and that the animals themselves wanted sex. The cost to the client varied from DKK 500-1,000 (about $85-$170 American).
What I want to know is, who asked the animals if they wanted sex with humans? And did the animals talk back in Danish?
Nothing has changed and yes, sex tourism is a big business in Denmark, particularly from those countries like Norway where bestiality used to be legal but was just banned late last year. Apparently allowing animals to be raped repeatedly for fun and profit doesn't qualify as cruelty or a violation of 'animal rights'. At least in Denmark.
Needless to say, since I found this out I don't eat anything made in Denmark. There's no telling where it's been or what prior use any animal involved was put to, if you take my meaning.
And for those of you PETA activists out there, Denmark is also one of the top three countries in trapping, farming and processing minks for those coats you love to hate.
Of course, 'animal rights' don't really count either if they get in the way of soulless bureaucratic statist philosophy. A perfectly healthy young giraffe named Marius was recently shot to death in Denmark using a bolt gun, slaughtered publicly in the Copenhagen zoo and fed to lions in front of a group of schoolchildren because- wait for it- his genes were too well represented in the existing giraffe population, so he was 'surplus'. Even though there were two other zoos willing to take him and one private benefactor put up almost a million U.S. dollars to buy him, the zoo authorities decided to shoot him and turn him into lion food anyway.
In light of this, how cruel is Kosher slaughtering? In fact, it's actually more humane than the usual methods, stunning or electric shock.
Shechita mandates a razor sharp knife, and in fact a schochet, a Jewish ritual slaughterer, is required to check it at frequent intervals and discard the knife if there is a nick or burr which might preclude a clean, swift passage of the knife in severing the trachea and the esophagus in accordance with Jewish Law. The Law also requires that none of the following occurs,specifically to make sure the animal suffers very little pain and dies almost instantaneously, usually in about 20 seconds or so:(a) hesitation or delay while drawing the knife, (b) excessive pressure or chopping, (c) burrowing the knife between the trachea and the esophagus or under the skin, (d) making the incision outside the specified area, and (e) laceration or tearing of the trachea or esophagus from a nicked, dull or otherwise flawed blade. After the animal is killed, its internal organs are examined to make sure it is healthy and had no disease or imperfection, one reason why you never hear of Mad Cow disease or salmonella when it comes to kosher meat and poultry. An animal improperly slaughtered is not kosher, and because of the desire to avoid unnecessary pain to an animal, Jewish Law also forbids observant Jews to hunt unless it is to save human life.
On the other hand stunning and electric shock can cause considerable pain to an animal. Both can involve intense torment for an animal for anywhere from one to two minutes, even longer if a heart attack or seizure results. Such events are not infrequent.
There's really no mistaking what this actually is. Denmark has changed quite a bit from the country that risked everything to save their Jewish population and smuggle them to Sweden in what amounted to an almost national conspiracy after the Nazis occupied the country.
As President of the European Jewish Congress, Dr Moshe Kantor, remarked: "This attack on basic Jewish religious practice in Denmark puts into question the continuance of community life in the country and follows strongly on the heels of persistent attacks on Jewish circumcision."
Denmark will likely follow Norway's example and quiet its restive Muslim population by amending its law to allow halal slaughtering but ban kosher slaughtering.In fact, that change is already being discussed.
The new law also follows strongly on the heels of a number of diplomatic rifts between Denmark and Israel regarding the Danish Left wing government's love affair with those Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians and its support for the BDS movement.
The country's foreign ministry both directly and through its international development agency Danida provides significant funding to some of the most anti-Israel NGOs. DanChurchAid, which receives tens of millions of dollars annually from the Danish government, supports and partners with active participants in the BDS campaign against Israel.And Denmark’s biggest bank, Danske Bank, announcing earlier this week that it would no longer do business with Israel’s biggest bank, Bank Hapoalim as well as other Israeli banks because they have branches in Judea and Samaria and actually allow Jews to have accounts and do business there.
Denmark also recently upgraded its diplomatic relations with the as yet non-country of 'Palestine' to full embassy status, and when Mogens Lykketoft, Speaker of the Danish parliament came on a visit to the region earlier this month, he made a point of visiting Mahmoud Abbas, the unelected head of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Gaza, the home of the genocidal Hamas, but claimed he couldn't manage to work Israel into his visit because of 'scheduling conflicts'.
Now there's a statement about human rights and democratic values for you! Obviously Lykketoft cares a lot more about pleasing those of his voters in Denmark who identify with the Palestinians than human rights or democracy.
With all of this, the Danish government is also sending a message to its Jews that echos the Bad Old Days:
It translates to English as "Jews Unwelcome Here."
Message received.
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