WASHINGTON, 23 January 2005 — American Muslims who slaughter lambs during Eid Al-Adha are facing problems with US authorities and critics who condemn the manner in which the animals are killed.
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a non-profit organization with over 350,000 members has, for the last ten years, been at the forefront of the animal protection movement and promoted the humane treatment of animals throughout the United States.
PETA has led widely publicized media campaigns to expose and prevent the abuse of animals, and investigated numerous reports of abuse of animals in religious sacrifice.
NJARA, the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, a non-profit organization with approximately 1,200 members that promotes the welfare of animals in the state of New Jersey, has filed a suit to protect animals from unnecessary suffering, and according to the court brief, “investigated many incidents of ritual sacrifice, especially in the Northern New Jersey urban areas, where the discarded bodies of sacrificed animals are frequently found in open areas, especially near the waterfronts.”
In North Carolina, a plan by Muslims to slaughter 100 lambs on a farm this weekend has come under scrutiny from state agricultural officials, who videotaped unlicensed slaughterhouses there.
Although there are three licensed facilities in North Carolina that specialize in halal slaughter, some Muslims prefer to conduct the slaughter themselves.
Meanwhile, agriculture officials said they were watching closely.
We will be there to see what’s going on,” Agriculture Department spokesman Brian Long said. “They’re not licensed — that’s the bottom line here.” But America is not alone in condemning the religious slaughter of animals.
Jewish and Muslim groups in Britain are fighting a proposal by a government advisory panel that ritual slaughter of animals by the two religions should be banned.
The Farm Animal Welfare Council said religious edicts forbidding animals to be stunned before killing are “unacceptable.”
Jewish rules for kosher slaughter, or shechita, require that animals be uninjured before killing. The Muslim rule of halal is similar, although some religious authorities and slaughterhouses have accepted forms of stunning.
The Muslim Council of Britain said the recommendation “interferes with freedom to practice religion.”
In Italy, the political party Northern League, called for a ban on the “barbaric and horrific” ritual slaughter of animals in both Islamic and Jewish faiths, as Eid Al-Adha got under way this week.
The Italian complaint seems more focused on racism than humane concerns for the beasts, as Alesandro Ce, the parliamentary leader of the anti-immigrant party, wants the ban.
In France, French actress turned animal rights activist, Brigitte Bardot, says hundreds of thousands of animals slaughtered for the Eid Al-Adha festival each year should be dazed before being killed.
Bardot told Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM); Muslims should use “electronarcosis”, an electric process that dazes animals before slaughter.
Dr. Boubakeur, also imam of Paris’ Great Mosque, suggested commissions including the Ministries of Interior and Agriculture could discuss the issue.
The former sex symbol said she did not want to interfere in religious practices. “What concerns me is the animals’ suffering,” said Bardot.
