Polish prosecutors decline to investigate shechitah
Published April 14, 2013
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — Prosecutors in Bialystok declined to open an investigation into Jewish ritual slaughter in the northeastern town of Tykocin.
Prosecutors acknowledged that it did not violate Polish law.
The prosecutor began investigating the March 12 shechitah, or kosher slaughter, of a cow in the northeastern town of Tykocin after hearing about it from a county veterinarian in Bialystok.
Urszula Sienczylo, chief prosecutor of Bialystok, said the Animal Protection Act prohibits slaughter without stunning, but the 1997 Act on the Relation of the State to the Jewish Communities in Poland states that ritual slaughter may be performed in accordance with the needs of the local Jewish community.
Beginning Jan. 1, Poland banned slaughter without stunning. The Ministry of Agriculture announced that it will introduce changes that will again allow ritual slaughter.
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