Danish Agriculture and Food Minister Dan Joergensen said that he would let his department evaluate any scientific evidence which could bring more information about the ritual slaughter, during a meeting with Danish Jewish and Muslim leaders.
He als reportedly repeated that if the kosher import would be endangered then he would reconsider the situation and then the Jewish Community maybe will be allowed to start shechita again.
The Jewish community was represented at the meeting by Denmark’s Chief Rabbi Dov Bent Lexner and the President of the community Finn Schwarz.
Jewish and Muslim leaders from Halal Denmark agreed to coordinate the information about shechita and halal in order to send relevant scientific studies to the Minister.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Director General of the European Jewish Association (EJA), an umbrella group of Jewish associations active in Europe, has called upon the Danish authorities to reconsider the recent legislation effectively banning religious ritual slaughter without prior stunning. The Minister introduced the new legislation, saying “animal rights come before religion”. Poland introduced a similar ban last year.
In a letter sent to the Danish Ambassador to the EU, the country’s Prime minister, and the Parliament’s Speaker, Rabbi Margolin stressed the strong reaction from global Jewry to this latest attack on Jewish welfare and freedom of religion.
Slaughter without prior stunning is a requirement for shechita, the kosher certification of meat.
“It has been proven scientifically that kosher slaughtering does not allow the animal to feel pain,” the rabbi said, adding that it “does not inflict more pain to animals than other methods commonly used in Europe”.