Excerpt:
90 Polish scientists have written a letter to Poland's prime minister saying that kosher and halal slaughtering methods are 'extremely cruel to animals'.
"Our position is not dictated by any dislike of religious practices and rituals but based solely on scientific knowledge and moral opposition to extreme forms of cruelty to animals," reads the letter written by Dr Antoni Amirowicz at the Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences and Prof. Jerzy BaĆbura of the Department of Experimental Zoology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Lodz.
The letter, supported by 90 Polish scientists, is in response to Poland's agriculture minister pledging to amend animal rights legislation to allow ritual animal slaughter, after the Polish Constitutional Court ruled on 27 November that kosher and halal methods of killing animals was inconsistant with Polish law.