Europe

Europe

Netherlands to ban animal slaughter

29 June 2011 02:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The House of Representatives of the Netherlands has passed a bill that bans religious slaughter of farm animals, though the Senate has yet to approve the bill, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The lower house approved the bill on Tuesday with 116 of the members in favor of the ban and only 30 against it, AP reported.

The bill, which bans the slaughter of livestock without stunning it first, will remove an earlier exemption that allowed Muslims and Jews to slaughter animals according to their beliefs.

However, the Senate must also pass the bill in order for it to become enacted.

If enforced, the Netherlands will be the second country after New Zealand to outlaw procedures that make meat halal for Muslims or kosher for Jews in recent years.

Switzerland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries banned the procedures in pre-World War II era.

Dutch Deputy Secretary of Economic Affairs and Agriculture Henk Blekers said, "The Cabinet will give its judgment over the proposed law after it has been treated by both houses."

Meanwhile, Muslim and Jewish communities in the country have denounced the move, calling it an infringement on their right to religious freedom.

Around one million Muslims live in the Netherlands, mostly immigrants from Turkey and Morocco.

Halal means lawful or legal in Arabic and it is a term designating any object which is permissible to use or any action allowable according to Islamic law, applied commonly in reference to meat products, foodstuff, and pharmaceuticals.