Excerpt:
Banning the ritual slaughter of livestock for food, a bedrock of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, has split Poland into opposing camps of religious groups, animal rights campaigners and flourishing meat exporters.
Animal rights activists backed by left-wing politicians last month won a key victory when Poland's Constitutional Court voided regulations that since 2004 have enabled the production of Jewish kosher and Muslim halal meat.
The court upheld complaints that slaughter without prior stunning breached a 1997 law on the humane treatment of animals.