New Danish Administrative Regulation Prohibits Kosher and Halal Slaughter Without Prior Stunning of Animal

World Jewish Congress reported yesterday that Denmark's Agriculture and Food Minister has signed a new regulation that takes effect Feb. 17  requiring all animal slaughter to be carried out with prior stunning. Traditionally both kosher and halal slaughter prohibits prior stunning of an animal, and the new regulation was strongly opposed by the Jewish and Muslim communities in Denmark.

Under the new rule, the provision in current Danish regulations that allows an exemption for ritual slaughter that follows elaborate procedures, including stunning immediately after slaughter, will be eliminated. Apparently the regulatory change will have little practical effect at least on the supply of kosher meat, since for the past ten years all kosher meat sold in Denmark has been imported from abroad.

The Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry's website says: "In Denmark all ritual slaughter of animals at slaughterhouses is performed with previous stunning at the moment." JTA reports that according to the president of Denmark's Jewish community, Danish Jews agreed in 1998 to the certification as kosher of meat from cattle that were stunned with non-penetrative captive bolt pistols.  However a Danish rabbi disputes this, saying the agreement probably referred to post-cut stunning, but since no kosher slaughter has taken place in Denmark for at least 10 years, it is unclear. In discussing the new regulation, Agriculture and Food Minister Dan Jørgensen told Danish television: "Animal rights come before religion."

Swedish Jewish Activist Applies In Protest For Asylum In Her Own Country

Citing legal attacks in Sweden on kosher slaughter and ritual circumcision, a Jewish political adviser to the Swedish party Folkpartiet announced in an article in Mosaic Magazine that she is applying for refugee status in her own country.  Annika Hernroth-Rothstein wrote in part:

When it comes to our religious traditions, those on both the Right and Left in Swedish politics find common ground; they take pride in defending both animals and children from the likes of us, and from what one politician has called our “barbaric practices.”... 

EU statutes provide that asylum be granted to persons with “well-founded reasons to fear persecution due to race; nationality; religious or political beliefs; gender; sexual orientation; or affiliation to a particular social group.” Jews in Sweden meet these criteria, and should be eligible for the same protection and support extended to non-natives. 

And so today, November 18, I am legally filing for refugee status and asylum—not in America, not in Israel, but here in Sweden, my own country.

Absurd?  No doubt. I can only expect that my application will be summarily dismissed. But the situation is beyond absurdity, beyond op-eds and strongly worded letters of protest. The situation calls for action.