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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/58778/full/58778/new-zealand-jews-sue-to-halt-shechita-ban/ <br /><br /> <b>New Zealand Jews sue to halt shechita ban</b> <br /> Thursday, July 29, 2010 | by <br /><br /><p>New Zealand’s Jewish community is mounting a legal case against the country’s new law banning kosher slaughter.</p> <p>Community spokesman David Zwartz said last week that an agreement between the community’s working group on shechita and Agriculture Minister David Carter “could not be reached.”</p> <p>Carter announced the ban in late May, overruling advice from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to exempt shechita from a new Animal Welfare Slaughter Code. The law leaves New Zealand’s 7,000 Jews without access to kosher chickens; kosher meat can be imported from Australia.</p> <p>“The minister is firm in his resolve to preserve his position, which does not give the Jewish community a secure continuing supply of kosher meat,” Zwartz said. “This is disappointing and has meant turning to progress the work on a legal action.”</p> <p>A leading law firm has been engaged and has prepared draft proceedings, Zwartz said.</p> <p>The legal case is likely to center on the law’s apparent violation of New Zealand’s Bill of Rights, which protects the right to a person’s religion, and its possible breach of the Animal Welfare Act, which contains provisions for religious rights. <em>— jta</em></p>

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