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We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ban Kosher and Halal Butchery and it's Products in Britain. link http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Kosher/
Well, I really don't think it's going to get anywhere anyway, BUT...the thing is, the way it is put is really bad. Seriously. First of all the creator is ILLITERATE, but aside from that...are they planning to ban ALL Kosher products??? Cos there are plenty that AREN'T meat. Kosher pareve products are VEGAN for pete's sake...!!!
If this person DID mean well, it would be better to have worded it something like, 'make it so all animals are stunned before slaughter' - do not allow a religious exception to this. Don't just say 'BAN Kosher and Halal'! The thing they are talking about basically IS the fact that the animals are not stunned before their throats are cut and they take some time to die of blood loss. They are not stunned because Jews and Muslims believe you should not eat an animal that has been clubbed to death. But i believe many Jews ARE aware of the cruelty now and many have become vegetarians, or if not, are not even all eating kosher meat for that reason, and would accept it if the animals were stunned first. i think it's only the really hard core that wouldn't accept stunning first. Just make sure it doesn't die when it's stunned and if it does then sell the meat to the Christians...:D
ANYWAY...the way this petition is put, I think while there WILL be some animal rights people signing it, it's going to have a lot more of the sort of people who think Muslims are all terrorists who are taking over Britain....
here's another link that was provided, from Viva: http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/ritual
Much more sensible!
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Comments
That said, I try to buy organic or free range meat for preference, rather than kosher meat, partly for reasons of accessibility and partly for ethical reasons, in that apparently most of the kosher meat available, particularly chicken, is exactly the same factory farmed stuff as ends up in Tesco for £1.99 a chicken, but at three times the price due to supervision charges.
A quote from my friend about a rabbi she knew: when he was training as a shochet, his blade was so sharp he didn't notice he'd cut off his own little finger for a few minutes
Rabbi Shulamit is like you - she said she just buys free range organic meat because she doesn't think the Kosher stuff is ethically reared.
Also, I would tend to be a little skeptical about claims that any modern farming method is designed to be less cruel, or even that it has somehow managed to be less cruel by accident rather than design, than another method. The whole process of modern day farming and slaughter is designed to be profitable first, convenient second, and any other concerns such as animal welfare or human health tend to come a long way after those.
*nb, I am very much pro animal rights, but the animal rights movement has some extremely dodgy parts
And yeah i know there are dodgy animal rights people. I come across them on that forum all the time. there are certain people on there that you want to ask if they became vegan for their blood pressure, because they sure don't seem very enlightened, (like a really backward homophobe I was arguing with on there the other day), or that they are so concerned with animals they forget that humans are their fellow beings too.