LATE last month the Dutch parliament voted to ban the ritual slaughter of animals.

This came about due to pressure from the Animal Rights Party who proposed that that livestock must be stunned before being slaughtered, contrary to the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher laws that require animals to be fully conscious.

The bill was passed in the lower house of parliament by 116 votes to 30. However, it must still be approved by the upper house before becoming law.

The vote was understandably controversial and for Liberals, Religious Freedom (as with all other freedoms) has to be taken seriously. Of course, ultimately we have to find the right balance between conflicting freedoms especially when one imposes itself upon another.

Marianne Thieme

Before the vote, the proposers debated and dealt with this argument. Put succinctly, Marianne Thieme, head of the Animal Rights Party, said:

“This way of killing causes unnecessary pain to animals. Religious freedom cannot be unlimited. For us religious freedom stops where human or animal suffering begins.”

The National Liberal Party wishes to congratulate the Animal Rights Party on their initiative. Ritual slaughter is a barbaric practice and an unnecessary process in this particular ‘food chain’. It should be outlawed here as well.

However, that’s not all. Animals are cruelly treated on a daily basis via intensive farming methods – battery farming probably being the most notorious.

The NLP feels that man should live in harmony with nature and not spoil it. For instance, we feel that as many people as possible should own their own homes and land and. Where at all possible, they should have enough land to grow a fair proportion of food to feed their families. We’ve also called for small family-run farms to become the norm.

Our concept of living in harmony with nature should also be extended as to how we treat animals.