Le Pen said she will ban halal slaughter of animals if she is elected, along with any other method of ritual slaughter (i.e. kosher) done without stunning.
Le Pen said she will ban halal slaughter of animals if she is elected, along with any other method of ritual slaughter (i.e. kosher) done without stunning.
Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate in the French presidential elections, said she will ban halal slaughter of animals if she is elected, along with any other method of ritual slaughter (i.e. kosher) done without stunning.
Le Pen, made the statement last Tuesday (4/25/17) during a campaign visit at a meat market near Paris. She did not openly mention the kosher slaughter of animals, but everyone understood what she meant by “any other method of ritual slaughter done without stunning”.
Both halal and kosher slaughter require animals be conscious when their throats are slit — a practice that critics say is cruel, but which advocates insist is more humane than mechanized methods used in non-kosher abattoirs.
Muslims slaughter animals in a similar method to Jews, but with many fewer restrictions, to produce halal meat. “I would say that I think that 90 percent of abattoirs are halal” in the Paris region, Le Pen said.
In Europe, the Jewish and Muslim rituals like circumcision and ritual slaughter have united opponents both from liberal circles who cite animal welfare as their main concern; and right-wing nationalists who view the custom as foreign to their countries’ Christian or secular cultures.
Both Islam and Judaism put great emphasis on animal welfare, and adhere to a one-cut method of slaughter, intended to ensure the animal’s rapid death. Under Jewish and Islamic law, animals for slaughter must be healthy and uninjured at the time of death, which rules out driving a bolt into the brain – though some Muslim authorities accept forms of stunning that can be guaranteed not to kill the animal.
Under Orthodox Jewish law, the animal’s neck is cut with a surgically sharp knife, severing its major arteries, causing a massive drop in blood pressure followed by death from loss of blood. Supporters say unconsciousness comes almost instantaneously – the cut itself stunning the animal. A similar procedure is used in Islamic slaughter, or dhabiha.
In the first voting round that took place on April 23rd, Le Pen took second place with 21.5%. She’ll face off against Macron in the second round of the election on May 7th.
