Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Jewish community to challenge animal slaughter rule

Updated at 4:09 pm on 26 July 2010

The New Zealand Jewish community is preparing a legal case to challenge a ban on the kosher slaughter of animals.

An animal welfare code introduced at the end of May requires all animals to be stunned before commercial slaughter.

That goes against the shechita, or kosher slaughter, requirement allowed under previous animal welfare rules, which involves the animal's throat being slit without stunning.

Wellington Jewish Council chairman David Zwartz says the ban means meat processed according to Jewish religious laws now has to be imported from Australia.

He says lawyers are preparing a case to have the slaughter restriction reversed.

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