(8 Apr 2011) SHOTLIST
Amsterdam
1. Cars and cyclists passing windmill in Amsterdam
2. Pigeons and boats on canal
3. Cyclists
4. Close of processed halal lamb being sliced in doner kebab shop
5. Mid of man slicing meat
6. Sign reads (Dutch) "Islamic Butcher"
7. Halal chicken in butcher's counter
8. Butcher spreads out chicken drumsticks in tin
9. Mid of butcher's counter and customer
Vierhouten, 90 kilometres (55.9 miles) northeast of Amsterdam
10. Various of the leader of the Party for the Animals, Marianne Thieme feeding chickens at home of a friend
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Marianne Thieme, leader of the Party for the Animals:
"All the scientists agree on this, there is much more pain and stress with animals who are being slaughtered without stunning, than when they are stunned."
12. Close of cockerel
13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Marianne Thieme, leader of the Party for the Animals:
"I expect that the majority of the parliament will vote for this ban, so that is good news for the two million animals that are (ritually) slaughtered each year in our country. That's not a small amount."
14. Thieme walks past
Amsterdam
15. Rabbi Raphael Evers, Federation of Jewish Orthodox Communities in the Netherlands walking down street
16. Close of kosher pizza shop sign
17. Rabbi Evers entering kosher food store
18. Close of Kosher chicken on sale
19. Evers paying at counter
20. SOUNDBITE: (English) Rabbi Raphael Evers, Federation of Jewish Orthodox Communities in the Netherlands:
"Our Jewish community feels very shocked. We are here in the Netherlands already for four hundred years and we see this new law against the ritual slaughter as an infringement on our constitutional religious rights."
21. Abdulfatteh Ali-Salah, director of Halal Correct, a certification body for Dutch halal meat entering cold store of halal meat suppliers' warehouse
22. Various of Ali-Salah inspecting halal products in warehouse
23. SOUNDBITE: (Dutch) Abdulfatteh Ali-Salah, director of Halal Correct:
"If the law goes through now there's nothing else to do but protest. And that's what we'll do. The Muslims in the Netherlands will protest en masse against this law."
Outskirts of Amsterdam
24. Farmer feeding sheep
25. Cows in field
26. Various of farmer bottle feeding a lamb
STORYLINE:
One of Europe's first countries to allow Jews to practise their religion openly may soon pass a law banning centuries-old Jewish and Muslim traditions on the ritual slaughter of animals.
In the Netherlands, an unlikely alliance of an animal rights party and the xenophobic Freedom Party is spearheading support for the ban on kosher and halal slaughter methods that critics say inflict unacceptable suffering on animals.
The far right's embrace of the bill, which is expected to go to a parliamentary vote this month, is based mostly on its strident hostility toward the Dutch Muslim population.
The Party of the Animals, the world's first such party to be elected to parliament, says the humane treatment of animals trumps traditions of tolerance.
As in most western countries, Dutch law dictates that butchers must stun livestock (render it unconscious) before it can be slaughtered, in order to minimise the animals' pain and fear.
But an exception is made for meat that must be prepared under ancient Jewish and Muslim dietary laws and practices. These demand that animals be slaughtered while still awake, by swiftly cutting the main arteries of their necks with razor-sharp knives.
Party for the Animals leader Marianne Thieme says this exception is unacceptable and that even religious freedom should have its limits.
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