Dutch ritual slaughter ban a step closer

[pjotr]

Dutch ritual slaughter ban a step closer



In Holland, a proposal to ban Kosher (Orthodox-Jewish) and Halal (Islamic) slaughter methods has moved a step closer to reality, with a majority of the country’s MPs now supporting the ban.

In order to reduce stress, in the EU animals slaughtered for meat are normally stunned before they are killed. But Kosher and Halal butchery requires the animals to be fully conscious when their throats are cut.

Rabbi Raphael Evers, the Rabbi of Rotterdam Federation of Jewish Orthodox Communities in the Netherlands, said: “Our Jewish community feels very shocked. We have been here in the Netherlands for four hundred years and we see this new law against ritual slaughter as an infringement of our constitutional religious rights.”

Most countries grant exceptions for Kosher and Halal abattoirs. But a coalition of animal rights and anti-Muslim groups is now demanding that Kosher and Halal slaughter methods be banned.

Abdulfatteh Ali-Salah, the director of Halal Correct, said: “If the law goes through there will be nothing to do but protest, and we will. The Muslims in the Netherlands will protest en masse against this law.”

Marianne Thieme, who proposed the ban, is a founding member of The “Party of the Animals” which won two seats in the Dutch parliament at the last elections. She believes that humane treatments of animals trumps religious tolerance. Kosher and Halal slaughter is already banned in New Zealand.

[pjotr]

Labour members reject ban on ritual slaughter

A general meeting of the Dutch Labour Party has passed a motion calling on the parliamentary party to reject a proposed ban on ritual slaughter as practised by Muslims and Jews.

The motion was adopted by a vote of 57.5 percent in favour and 42.5 percent against.

Labour's parliamentary party had previously said it intended to back the draft bill, submitted by the Animal Rights Party, which would end all forms of ritual slaughter in which animals are not anaesthetised first.

It is not yet clear whether the motion passed by the general Labour meeting will sway its parliamentary party to change its position. Motions are not binding but carry considerable weight.

Many members, especially those with a Jewish or Muslim background, voiced outrage that the parliamentary party had adopted its position without first allowing the party to conduct a thorough discussion on the matter.

Labour leader Job Cohen admitted that the parliamentary party had failed to act properly. “Hence this general meeting,” he explained.

Angry members argued that Islamic and Jewish slaughter customs do not cause animals to suffer more.
Others argued that their suffering is prolonged as the animals remain conscious for a time while they bleed to death.

Many Labour members agree that a ban on ritual slaughter would encroach on the religious tolerance on which Holland has prided itself for centuries.

Other members wondered why the issue is not being discussed in the broader context of animal welfare in general, including abuses in the industrial farming sector.

The bill proposed by the Animal Rights Party will be discussed in parliament on Wednesday.

(cl/tf)

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide

[pjotr]

[pjotr]

The British Rabbi Jonathan Henry Sacks came to speak to the Commission of the Dutch parlaiment, who wants to ban ritual slaughter of animals by Jews and Muslims in the Netherlands.

Jonathan Henry Sacks



Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks, Kt (born 8 March 1948, London) is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. His Hebrew name is Yaakov Zvi. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the UK, he is the Chief Rabbi of the mainstream British Orthodox synagogues, but not the religious authority for the Federation of Synagogues or the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or the other movements, Masorti, Reform and Liberal Judaism.

The rabbi speaks English in this video of the Dutch National TV:
nos.nl/video/248924-ritueel-slachten-verbieden-of-niet.html

[pjotr]

What do you think? Should the ritual slaughter of animals by jews and muslims be allowed or should the European way, animals slaughtered for meat are stunned before they are killed, be the only right way of slaughter?

[Bonobo]

Jun 23, 2011 1:56:27 GMT 1 pjotr said:

What do you think? Should the ritual slaughter of animals by jews and muslims be allowed or should the European way, animals slaughtered for meat are stunned before they are killed, be the only right way of slaughter?

I was thinking about it many times. When in US, I saw notices on kosher meat products saying they were from traditional slaughter.

It should be banned, I suppose.

[pjotr]

Jun 23, 2011 7:20:51 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Jun 23, 2011 1:56:27 GMT 1 pjotr said:

What do you think? Should the ritual slaughter of animals by jews and muslims be allowed or should the European way, animals slaughtered for meat are stunned before they are killed, be the only right way of slaughter?

I was thinking about it many times. When in US, I saw notices on kosher meat products saying they were from traditional slaughter.

It should be banned, I suppose.

And what about religious freedom? It is also a metter of secularism versus "orthodox" religions, and ethics versus traditions, customs and cultures.

This was also a rare occasion to see jews and muslims united against the Dutch politicial parties who support the ban (a majority of the Dutch parlaiment intends to vote in favor of the ban) and the scientists who investigated the case, and concluded that ritual slaughter is more harmful than stunned slaughter.

Even the Pro-Jewish and "Zionist" PVV party of Geert Wilders voted in favor of the ban. Political parties had big difficulties with Muslim and jewish members and Dutch people who find "religious freedom" more important than the ethics in slaughter or animal rights.

[pjotr]

Jun 23, 2011 7:20:51 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Jun 23, 2011 1:56:27 GMT 1 pjotr said:

What do you think? Should the ritual slaughter of animals by jews and muslims be allowed or should the European way, animals slaughtered for meat are stunned before they are killed, be the only right way of slaughter?

I was thinking about it many times. When in US, I saw notices on kosher meat products saying they were from traditional slaughter.

It should be banned, I suppose.

Bo,

I saw the same in Cape Town, South-Africa were my parents and I stayed in an appartment in a predominantly jewish neighbourhood, with kosher products sections in supermarkets and grocery stores, and kosher butchers, bakeries, bagel shops, restaurants and pubs (because you have kosher wine and kosher coffee too I guess).

New York was the most jewish town I went too (never seen so many [ultra] orthodox jews), so there must be a lot of kosher food and meat too, and next to the Netherlands the nearest Orthodox jewish place is Antwerp with a larger Orthodox community. Many secular and liberal or progressive Jews in the Netherlands are not that kosher. I personally know jews who eat pork and other non-kosher things, such as meat.

Pieter

[pjotr]

Reactions to the Dutch anti-shechita bill

Dutch anti-shechita bill passes hurdle
By REUTERS
06/28/2011 17:58



Bil stipulates that livestock must be stunned before being slaughtered, contrary to Muslim halal and Jewish kosher laws.

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch parliament voted on Tuesday to ban ritual slaughter of animals, a move strongly opposed by the country's Muslim and Jewish minorities, but left a loophole that could let traditional butchery continue.

The bill by the small Animal Rights Party, the first such group in Europe to win seats in a national parliament, passed the lower house of parliament and must be approved by the upper house before becoming law.

It stipulates that livestock must be stunned before being slaughtered, contrary to the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher laws that require animals to be fully conscious.

"This way of killing causes unnecessary pain to animals. Religious freedom cannot be unlimited," Marianne Thieme, head of Animal Rights Party, said before the vote. "For us religious freedom stops where human or animal suffering begins."

In a rare show of unity, the Netherlands' Muslim and Jewish communities -- about 1 million and 40,000 respectively in a total population of 16 million -- have condemned the proposed ban as a violation of their religious freedom.

European Union regulations require animals to be stunned before slaughter but allow exceptions for ritual slaughter. Sweden, Luxembourg and non-EU members Norway and Switzerland ban ritual slaughter.

Reactions:

1
I have seen animals slaughtered per Shechita. I can witness that the animal reacts barely, if at all, to the cut with an exceedingly sharp knife, It beggars belief for anyone to belive that a bash on the head is more humane. It is also impossible to believe that anyone honestly believes that an ox (or a chicken!) notices the knife in the hand of the shochet, concludes that the knife must be part of some plot to terminate its life, and agonizes about all the things that it had failed to accomplish while it was able and free. There are enough Muslims in Holland to frustrate this stupid law.

2. Time to Leave

Author: Ovadiah ben Avraham
Country: Israel
06/28/2011 20:12

In San Francisco they are voting on a law against circumcision. It's time for all Jews to come home to Eretz Israel.

3. About right

Author: ASL
Country: Sweden
06/28/2011 19:55

With all respect, it is time to review our values and put animal welfare before any potentially outdated or senseless religious practices. Animals feel pain in the same way that we do and it is in our hands to lessen their suffering. I believe that this has more to do with compassion than with "attacking" anyone's religious freedom. If halal/kosher supports killing an animal that is fully conscious of what is happening, then I think it is about time to start promoting vegetarianism. I honestly applaud this initiative and hope many more countries will follow the Dutch example.

4. Dutch shechita bill

Author: LWJ
Country: USA
06/28/2011 19:37

The legality of Dutch recreational hunting must be discussed prior to any restriction on kosher or halal slaughter practice. Killing for sport must be a priority issue for legislation on stunning.

5. Told ya so

Author: Osama
Country: Canada
06/28/2011 19:31

I wonder what all those jews who supported Geert Wilders are saying now??? it's time for us (Children of Abraham) to unite against this oppression...

6. Outlaw hunting in Holland!

Author: HonestAbe
Country: USA
06/28/2011 19:11

Hunters just shoot and kill their victims, which is seldom a very peaceful or painful way to die. Are the Dutch going to outlaw hunting? If not this is outlandish hypocracy!According to a website called "Hunting in the Netherlands", they are allowed to hunt hare, mallard, pheasant, pigeon and rabbit. A rabbit that has its foot shot off by a hunter would suffer greatly. If you ban humane ritual slaughtering then you must ban hunting as well!

7. Who says the animal cant be stunned?

Author: Jake
Country: USA
06/28/2011 18:46

Just curious. I'd like to know the source in Jewish Halachah (law), that stipulates a shechita cannot be performed on a stunned animal. Stunning does not create a blemish.

8. Sorry

Author: Martine
Country: Netherlands
06/28/2011 18:45

I feel so ashamed for my country as they don't listen to the Holy One. I'm sorry there is so much antisemitism. My prayers go to Jews all around the world, stay strong, you are beautiful people so much loved by God!

9. Holland prefers animals over Jews

Author: mindRider
Country: The Free World
06/28/2011 18:45

With the acceptance of the anti-sjechieta law in the Netherlands contrary to the freedom of religion as stated in the constitution the first step in a Jewish exodus has been set. Five centuries of Jewish liberty in this country have started to come to an end.

10. Shechita banned

Author: Paardestaart
Country: Netherlands
06/28/2011 18:42

Disgusting - once again the Dutch abandon the jews. If the public isn't actually evilminded this shows how deranged it has become, and how sentimental. This will not at all help animals, and it will hurt our friends.

11. Shechita Part 1

Author: yusakhar
Country: Israel
06/28/2011 18:42

I have seen animals slaughtered per Shechita. I can witness that the animal reacts barely, if at all, to the cut with an exceedingly sharp knife, It beggars belief for anyone to belive that a bash on the head is more humane. It is also impossible to believe that anyone honestly believes that an ox (or a chicken!) notices the knife in the hand of the shochet, concludes that the knife must be part of some plot to terminate its life, and agonizes about all the things that it had failed to accomplish while it was able and free. There are enough Muslims in Holland to frustrate this stupid law.

[pjotr]

European Jews Seek Help in Anti-Shechita Law

A majority of the Dutch parliament voted in favor of a bill prohibiting the slaughter of animals in the Netherlands that have not been stunned.

Jewish communities in Europe are galvanizing their political clout and reaching out to whoever might help to prevent looming legislation that could seriously harm their right to conduct ritual slaughter of animals.

The Dutch parliament passed a bill prohibiting slaughtering animals in the Netherlands that have not been stunned, which includes Jewish shechita and the Muslim halal methods. The European Parliament a debate about a number of new amendments to the EU’s draft Food Information Regulation took place, which raised the possibility of labeling all meat slaughtered using the Jewish or Muslim methods. Such labeling, it is feared, would have devastating effects on the kosher meat industry.

Jewish law dictates that an animal about to be slaughtered “has to be fit and healthy and capable of independent life,” as Dr. Stuart Rosen wrote in a 2004 article defending Shechita (ritual jewish slaughter) – defined there as “a perfectly clean incision through the structures at the front of the neck” – that appeared in the British Veterinary Association’s The Veterinary Record. Stunning – which can be done mechanically by dealing a blow to the animal’s head with a captive bolt pistol; with a large electrical discharge to the head; or through narcosis induced by making the creatures breathe carbon dioxide- enriched air – directly damages the animal’s nervous system.

As such, it would become “unfit for Shechita because of an existing injury or abnormality,” Rosen explained.

While killing animals to consume their meat is permitted in Europe, the EU’s directive “European Convention for the Protection of Animals for Slaughter” generally requires stunning before slaughter. Still, it lets member states allow exemptions for religious slaughter in light of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

The only member of the EU to ban Shechita to date was Sweden; Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, which are not part of the EU, have banned it as well, as per data provided by the Rabbinical Centre of Europe. This week Sweden is joyned by the Netherlands.

The potential shechita crisis was one of the central topics on the itinerary of the European Jewish Congress’s General Assembly, held Sunday in Budapest in April. EJC President Moshe Kantor expressed his concern over the Dutch bill in a letter to The Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The Dutch bill, put forth by a proanimal rights party and supported by politician Geert Wilders, who is not considered hostile to the local Jewish community, would also affect the widely unregulated halal practice in the country.

“While the proposed law suggests that two million animals are slaughtered according to religious tradition every year in Holland, our records indicate that Jewish slaughter rarely exceeds a couple of thousand animals annually. So this law would only infringe on and single out the rights of a very small minority and have little effect on the vast majority of religious slaughter in The Netherlands,” Kantor wrote.

The EJC also appealed to every Dutch parliamentarian and ambassador in Europe.

Kantor met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is also the current president of the Council of the European Union.

“Orban said he’d appeal to the president of the EU Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, to do what he could to prevent harming the Jewish community of Europe by prohibiting shechita,” Kantor told The Jerusalem Post, noting that while the volume of Jewish slaughter in the Netherlands was small, such a law could create a dangerous precedent.

Kantor also stressed the importance of joint action on the topic.

“The joint efforts of the Jewish communities from around Europe are crucial here,” Kantor said. “There are not many Jews in Europe, and our strength comes from synchronized action.”

Joël Mergui, president of the Consistoire Central – the union of Jewish communities in France – who has been concentrating European efforts to protect shechita, explained in his address to the GA on the topic the financial ramifications of labeling meat taken from the bodies of animals that were not stunned.

“Most of the meat from animals slaughtered according to Jewish law – some 75 percent – does not end up being kosher, either because of the part of the livestock it is, or because health blemishes were discovered in the animal post-slaughtering, which disqualifies it,” he said.

That kind of meat ends up in the general market, and labeling would encourage its boycott, which would lead to a dramatic rise in the prices of kosher meat, he explained.

Mergui also said that Jewish slaughtering causes the animal’s relatively swift loss of consciousness due to the lack of oxygen to the brain, while various methods of stunning have their faults and do not always succeed on the first attempt.

Pro-stunning advocates contend that beginning the killing process this way is far more humane than simply cutting the animal’s throat with a very sharp blade.

Sources involved in countering the Dutch bill believe that anti-Semitism is not at the root of it; however, Shimon Cohen of Shechita UK outrightly compared the notion of marking kosher meat, as per the proposal facing the European Parliament, to the Nazi methods of setting Jews apart.

“Mr. Stevenson is picking on Jews and Muslims by saying that only their slaughter methods should be labeled. He is blatantly discriminating against our communities,” said Cohen, referring to Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson, who is behind the recent proposal.


Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson

“It is the 21st-century equivalent of the yellow star, but on our food. We have our own labels for kosher meat, but we do not want the law to discriminate against us by singling us out in this way,” continued Cohen, whose organization advocates Jewish ritual slaughter.

“Mr. Stevenson is a known opponent of shechita, and he is doing all he can to sow doubts in the minds of consumers about our slaughter methods, which are in fact both legal and humane – far more humane than the electrocution, clubbing, shooting and gassing that takes place in secular slaughter,” he contended.

The question of shechita’s humaneness in comparison to other methods of killing animals seems as yet unresolved.

Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University who is considered one of the world’s leading experts on handling and welfare of livestock in slaughter plants, defended appropriately conducted shechita in an article published in the journal Meat & Poultry last year.

“I have observed that cattle held in an upright restraint device had almost no reaction to correctly done Kosher slaughter that was performed with a special long knife,” she wrote.

“The cut with the special knife appeared to not cause pain.”

In some kosher slaughterhouses, however, the animals, still conscious, are hoisted with shackles before being killed, which greatly increases their anxiety and suffering. Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger informed kosher slaughterhouses in South America last year that he would no longer permit the import of meat produced in such an inhumane manner to Israel. An alternate method, involving large brackets that hold the animal from both sides and then flip it over, is being gradually introduced instead of the shackles.


Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger

“From my observations, it appears that when good practices are used, the steer or lamb will stay still and not react to the cut,” she wrote. “For religious slaughter it is important to use a knife that is long enough to fully span the neck; keep the tip of the knife outside the neck during the cut; use a very sharp knife; and hold the wound open during the cut.”

Addressing findings of a team of New Zealand researchers that showed how slaughter without stunning causes pain, Grandin stated that the knives used in that study to kill the animals were neither as long nor as sharp as Jewish slaughter practice dictates. Additionally Grandin noted that “in properly done kosher slaughter, the wound is held open during the cut,” an action that apparently diminishes the animal’s pain, while “the methods section of the [New Zealand] paper did not contain sufficient detail to determine if the wound was held open during the cut.”

New Zealand has also recently outlawed shechita in its limits.

To Margui, himself a medical professional, there is no doubt as to the humaneness of the ancient Jewish ritual slaughter practices. He has asked various Israeli ministers, as well as Metzger, to help the Jewish European efforts by finding a major Israeli university to conduct a comparative study of the Jewish and European animal-killing methods.

“It is now time that Israel helps the Diaspora, too,” he told the Post.

Margui’s efforts to counter the European legislation include urging the various Jewish communities into action in every country, in line with the Jewish principal of mutual responsibility and the belief that the passing of one law prohibiting or hindering shechita could create a broader phenomenon.

He also is coordinating with the other group that stands to be affected by such legislation: the local Muslim community.


French Jewish-Muslim cooperation aginst the ban of ritual slaughter

“We are working closely with the Muslim community of France on this, and I am in contact with my Muslim counterpart, who sees the issue eye to eye with me,” he said.

Source: JPost.com

[uncltim]

I fully support this ban. Speaking as someone who has both butchered livestock and hunts wild game on a regular basis, the idea of not rendering an animal unconscious before letting it bleed-out is the most inhumane and barbaric thing I could possibly imagine.

I can sum-up my feelings about ritual slaughter with 4 words- "F*ck everything about this!"

[pjotr]

Dutch parliament approves ban on religious slaughter

If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat from abroad, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.

By The Associated Press Tags: Jews World Europe Jews ADL

The Dutch parliament has passed a bill banning the slaughter of livestock without stunning it first, removing an exemption that has allowed Jews and Muslims to butcher animals according to their centuries-old dietary rules.

If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat from abroad, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.


Islamic butcher Amsterdam

However, the bill must still pass the Senate, which is unlikely before the summer recess, and the Cabinet said Monday the law may be unenforceable in its current form due in part to ambiguity introduced in a last-minute amendment.

If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims, it will be the second country after New Zealand to do so in recent years. It will join Switzerland, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War II anti-Semitism.

In New York, the Anti-Defamation League condemned Tuesday's vote in the lower house, with its national director, Abraham H. Foxman, calling it "a de facto ban on kosher slaughter" that "has repudiated the Netherlands' historic commitment to religious freedom."


Longtime Chief: Abraham Foxman has been the national director of the Anti-Defamation league since 1987.

"Dutch Jews must not be put to the choice of violating a central tenet of Judaism, foregoing fresh meat, or emigrating. We call upon the Dutch Senate to prevent this action from leading to a clear violation of religious freedom that has a disproportionate impact on the Jewish community," Foxman said in a statement.

Dutch Deputy Secretary of Economic Affairs and Agriculture Henk Blekers said: "The Cabinet will give its judgment over the proposed law after it has been treated by both houses."


Jewish orthodox butcher

The Cabinet will "also look at how it fits with freedom of religion," Blekers said, citing the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lawmaker Marianne Thieme of the Party for the Animals — the world's first animal rights party to win seats in a national parliament — welcomed the approval of the bill that she had first introduced in 2008, and said she was now prepared to defend it in the Senate.

"It's a great honor," she said. She has argued that sparing animals needless pain and distress outweighs religious groups' rights to follow slaughter practices "no longer of our time."

But the threat of a possible ban has led to outcry from Jewish and Muslim groups who say it infringes on their right to freedom of religion.

Around 1 million Muslims live in the Netherlands, mostly immigrants from Turkey and Morocco. The once-strong Jewish community now numbers 40,000-50,000 after more that 70 percent were deported and killed by the Nazis during World War II.

"The Dutch Jewish community is small and the Jewish kosher meat consumption is smaller still, but the impact on our community is deep and large," said a committee of rabbis pleading with parliament not to pass the law in an open letter Tuesday.

"Older Jews are frightened and wonder what the next law will be that limits their religious life. The youth are openly asking whether they still have a future that they can or want to build in the Netherlands."

A solid majority of Dutch voters say they support the ban, and parliament voted for it by a margin of 116 for to 30 against.

Ritual slaughter rules prescribe that animals' throats must be cut swiftly with a razor-sharp knife while they are still conscious, so that they bleed to death quickly.

Support for the ban came from the political left, which sees ritual slaughter as inhumane, and from the anti-immigration right, which sees it as foreign and barbaric.

Only Christian parties were opposed, arguing the ban undermines the country's long tradition of religious tolerance.

Centrist parties were initially divided, with many of them loath to lose the support of Muslim voters. Last week they introduced an amendment that says ritual slaughterers may still be granted licenses — if they can "prove" that it does not cause animals more pain than stunning.

Science is divided as to whether ritual slaughter does cause more suffering.

The Royal Dutch Veterinary Association says it believes that during "slaughter of cattle while conscious, and to a lesser extent that of sheep, the animals' well-being is unacceptably damaged."

Other observers, including noted American animal welfare expert Temple Grandin of Colorado State University, have said animals do not appear to show more distress when a ritual slaughter is conducted properly.

Elbakkali Elkhammar, chairman of the Dutch Council of Imams, said that religious groups should be given the benefit of the doubt.

"There are various opinions about this matter, both from Islamic jurisprudence as medical science, that sometimes approve of other protocols for ritual slaughter and sometimes forbid them," he said in a statement.

"The solution is therefore to leave the rules unchanged."

[valpomike]

Is this not a Polish group, with things of Poland, and her people? So who cares how they kill in Holland? I don't mean to upset anyone, and if I did, I am sorry.

Mike

[pjotr]

Mike,

You don't upset me, because you have a point there.
If there is a Dutch topic which has a connection to Poland than it is interesting, but if that connection isn't there a majority of the Forum members is probably not interested in the topic.

Kosher and Halal slaughter is not an issue in Poland I presume.

Cheers,
Pieter

[Bonobo]

Jul 1, 2011 4:34:44 GMT 1 valpomike said:

Is this not a Polish group, with things of Poland, and her people? So who cares how they kill in Holland? I don't mean to upset anyone, and if I did, I am sorry.
Mike

Mike, look at the name of the board first: European matters or worldly affairs? before you ask such unusual questions.

[Bonobo]

Jun 30, 2011 14:03:49 GMT 1 pjotr said:

If enacted and enforced, religious groups say observant Jews and Muslims would have to import meat from abroad, stop eating it altogether, or leave the Netherlands.

Very nice. But the possibility of importing kosher slaughter meat makes it only a matter of honour for the Netherlands, not real alleviation of animal suffering.