© AlamyThe Danish government has passed a law banning the religious slaughter of animals for halal and kosher meat.
After years of campaigning in the Scandinavian country, the ban came in to law yesterday.
The change has been described as 'anti-Semitic and 'a clear interference in religious freedom' by a group petitioning against the change.
Under European regulations, animals are required to be stunned before slaughter unless an exemption can be found on religious grounds.
And animals must be conscious when killed for the resultant meat to be kosher under Jewish law and halal under Islamic law.
But, following criticism, the country's Minister for Food, Dan Jorgensen, told Denmark's TV2 that 'animal rights come before religion'.
Campaign group Danish Halal has collected more than 13,000 signatures opposing the law change and plans to present them to Mr Jorgensen this week.
The group said: 'The new order is a clear interference in religious freedom and limits the Muslims and the Jews' right to practise their religion in Denmark.
'It is a procedure that is done under the guise of animal welfare, despite the fact that many scientific studies show that the animal suffers less when properly performed ritual slaughter than when it gets a blow to the head with a nail gun.'
The law change has also drawn criticism because it has been implemented in the same country that a giraffe was brutally slaughtered last week in front of an audience.
Marius, a perfectly healthy animal, was shot, dissected in front of a crowd which included children, and fed to lions last week at Copenhagen Zoo.
Despite more than 20,000 people signing an online petition to save two-year-old Marius, staff at Copenhagen Zoo went ahead and shot the animal with a bolt pistol.
Young children stood at arm's length as his carcass was skinned and dissected before the meat was thrown to the lions.
The Danish zoo said the drastic move was needed to combat inbreeding and insisted the display was educational.
Today I happened to buy a copy of the Daily Mirror who on Tuesday the 18th had a feature article which took up 3/4 of the front page: [Link] In this article which they title 'SHOCK INVESTIGATION' - 'Shooting alley where live pigs are targets' - and they write: 'Army medics train by treating gun wounds - PIGS are being shot so British Army medics can learn to treat battle wounds'- 'Military surgeons are sent to Denmark for the controversial training on live animals - even though they are illegal in the UK' and then they have the full report on pages 4-5.
What is worse or is it all the same? Should one allow the religious killings of animals and forbid the army killings for the benefit of the military surgeons (so they can go to a more distant country?) Or should the Daily Mail work harder to stop all the aggressive wars and revolution the US-NATO-EU governments support in so many countries? I think the cruel 'religious' killing of animals are wrong and it is hard for me to accept the meaningfulness of the pig shootings, since the military had no reason to go to Afghanistan in the first place.