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Last Updated: Jun 25th, 2007 - 17:07:26 |
Leipzig, Germany - Judges of Germany's federal administrative tribunal rejected Thursday demands by pro-animal groups to outlaw halal butchery, the Islamic practice of killing food animals while they are conscious.
Rustem Altinkupe, a Turkish butcher, has been battling for nine years with a local authority near Frankfurt to obtain an exemption on religious grounds from German animal-slaughtering rules.
Constitutional judges of Germany's highest court had ruled in 2002 that halal killing was protected under religious freedom.
But pro-animal groups who consider halal killing cruel then contended that it had been outlawed by a constitutional amendment the same year that obliges Germany to protect animals. The federal tribunal in the eastern city of Leipzig disagreed Thursday.
They directed the local authority to issue a permit to Altinkupe for his shop in the town of Asslar, but said strict conditions should be attached. Butchers in other German places already have permits.
Germany's law on cruelty to animals says warm-blooded animals must be anaesthetized, usually with an electric shock, before slaughter, but allows exemptions under religious rules such as halal killing or the kosher dietary rules of Judaism.
Halal rules require an Islamic prayer to be recited as the animal's blood is let.
Altinkupe, 39, who has been a butcher for the past 18 years, possessed an exemption until 1995 when the authority blocked it. Since then, he has operated with a provisional exemption, which was issued until the legal battle was decided.
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