Denmark Bans Ritual Slaughter, But Are They Really Concerned About Animal Welfare?

Denmark banned ritual slaughter this week, with the ministry of agriculture saying, “Animal welfare takes precedence over religion.” And while this sounds like a victory for animals, considering the country’s other actions, their concern for animals is questionable.

Animal cruelty for secular reasons is, in fact, a bigger problem in the country, as Andrew Brown writing for The Guardian points out.

He writes: “The slaughter of animals at the end of their lives is of far less ethical importance than the way they are treated beforehand. The cruelties of factory farming extend over an animal’s whole lifetime whereas the cruelty of ritual slaughter lasts minutes at most.”

Some examples of animal cruelty in Denmark taken from the article:

• 25,000 piglets a day die in factory farms without making it to the slaughterhouse.

• Half of the adult female pigs have open sores and 95 percent of them have their tails docked — a practice illegal under EU regulations that is used to stop them from chewing and biting one another’s tails in their concrete sheds.

Also, only a week before, Denmark slaughtered a healthy giraffe because he was considered unsuitable for breeding and then dissected the animal and fed it to lions.

Yes, ritual slaughter should be banned, because religious rights shouldn’t be put above Animal rights. But this move to ban ritual slaughter by Denmark doesn’t seem to be motivated by a desire to spare animals suffering, and that’s a problem. The country and the ministry can say they are doing something for animal welfare, but are they taking action that really matters?

For further reading, check out “Why Tradition Is A Poor Excuse for Unethical Practices.”

Image Source: le vent le crl/Flickr