Many countries that permit hunting, the most barbaric human sport anyone could ever imagine, perversely forbid shechita. Why should Jewish slaughter, done quickly, so the animal won't languish in pain, be immoral? There's only one reason. It's because Jews are forbidden to eat the flesh (cooked of course) of animals killed any other way. And if it's hard and expensive to get kosher meat and poultry, they may have fewer Jews in their country.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy is having a tough time in his re-election campaign, so his latest ploy is to point out how wide Muslim Halal and Jewish Shechita have become. Apparently there are those French who davka don't want to eat anything slaughtered either way and want the food to be labeled.
Even worse:
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon advised Muslims and Jews to forgo ritual slaughter practices he deems un-modern, sparking controversy.Yes, of course, France permits hunting!
“I think religions should think about maintaining traditions that no longer have much in common with the state of science and technology, health issues today,” Fillon said Monday on French Europe 1 radio, in reference to halal and kosher practices.
“We’re in a modern country. There are traditions that are ancestral traditions that no longer correspond to much, whereas they corresponded in the past to problems of hygiene,” he said, speaking his “personal” opinion. (complete article)
8 comments:
Hi Batya,
I have no problem with hunting so long as it follows 3 guidelines.
1) it's done within traditional animal management guidelines (we're idiots to over-hunt species to the point of extinction -- such as the American Buffalo or the Dodo bird)
2) it's done in the wild -- not some of these "managed hunts" where they capture a lion and release it into a 2 acre fenced enclosure so a hunter can kill it and show off his exotic animal trophy.
3) the meat is eaten.
I also have no problem with ranchers, farmers, etc. reducing pests/predators -- such as prairie dogs, coyotes, wolves, etc. -- when traditional methods fail. But I can't rationalize shooting a coyote that comes looking for chickens when you don't fence in your barnyard. Use some common sense people. I also don't care for trophy hunters who just want a head to mount on their wall. If it's a part of hunt, ok, but don't make it the point of the hunt. Why someone would *want* to go shoot an elephant, tiger, or bear is beyond my understanding, but if the meat is used, I'll live with it (that doesn't mean I like it).
In my area, deer and pheasants are the most common game to be hunted. Deer are limited to a few weekends a year -- 2-3 for shotgun hunting and 4-5 (maybe) for bow hunting. You are limited to the number and type of deer you can shoot and without the hunt, the deer population becomes too crowded and disease sets in. We've dealt with that in the past. We reduced the number of deer allowed to be taken and "wasting disease" started showing up in the (over) population.
I, by the way, do not hunt and I never saw my dad or grandparents hunt, but I did grow up around hunters and I greatly enjoy target shooting such a paper targets and clay pigeons.
Joe
Ooops, I meant to add another point:
I have no problem with "religious rituals" for slaughter, so long as it's done humanely and is, again, used for the meat.
I'm not keen on slaughtering a chicken or a goat because you need their blood for a sacrifice, but to each their own, I guess...
Joe, my point is that there is no way that any sort of hunting is more humane than shechita, so if a country thinks that shechita must be outlawed, then hunting should go first.
What do you expect from the French? They have always been an anti-semitic people. BTW doesn't Sarkozy have a Jewish connection?
David, a while ago I did a post for which I researched all of the countries that banned shechita to see if they banned hunting...
Sarkozy has a strange background as I remember.
In America we have a wonderful(ad nauseum) little expression that I actually love to use. It's not a particularly great expression, yet sometimes, in my mind, it fits.
I would tell the Frech, "Put the crack pipe down."
Leah, I left the states before people spoke like that, but I agree. It's really an international problem.
Shalom!
Sarkozy does have Jewish ancestry, a grandfather if I'm not mistaken, and he did say that he was proud of his Jewish background. Do not question me on his sincerity... or whether or not later statements contradicted the first...
That French magazine is titled "The Hunt". The entire magazine is devoted to hunting. What would the French say about a magazine titled, "Shechita"?
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