Ritual slaughter in a public place.
In October, 2011, following reports of ritual slaughter of animals in a suburban street locally – apparently under permit granted by the local authority – I blogged under the title of ‘Slaughter in the Suburbs’.
According to stats, that topic has had more than double the views of any other I have ever written on in WordPress. These have shown a sudden major spurt in the past few days using ‘African slaughter rituals should be allowed in the suburbs’ as the most common search subject – I wonder what sparked it? A recent news item I missed, or even, perhaps, an assignment for some tertiary education course?
Anyway, I would feel gratified if there was any indication that the interest came from those who were in support of the feelings of disgust and disapproval I expressed, but the evidence seems against this. Only four comments have come subsequent to the month of publication. Whilst all of these were against the practice, I assume that the hundreds of other visitors were either disinterested in the moral and commonsense aspects, or looking for justification for such rituals. Either way, I imagine that they had to slink away disappointed.
Surely, any rational modern person must accept that any gods, or writings, or sets of ancestors, or blindly-followed customs, which perpetuate barbarity of this sort are worthy only of ridicule and contempt. The practices should not only be condemned in the strongest terms, but should be made completely illegal and subject to harsh penalties. International legislation is, in fact, disgracefully backward in this regard. Tolerance for immoral absurdities contained in religion is allowed to replace all decency.
Any religion worth having should inculcate total respect for living creatures and be against causing them suffering. It should, particularly, be against anything which makes a spectacle of slaughter, particularly where children are allowed to be present.
The regulation of abattoirs is in serious need of reform worldwide, but at least the malpractices found there are not used for ‘entertainment’ which is, in effect, what public ritual slaughtering provides. This is an abomination similar to dog-fighting or cock-fighting, and religion can provide no excuse whatsoever.
Colonialist's Blog 
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For every person their view is rational so we must do better than claim that those who disagree with us are irrational. ISIS are in their minds perfectly rational. It would be much more sensible to have a rule and I might suggest ‘ Do unto others as you would be done by ‘ I do realise that many people do not place the welfare of animals on a par with human welfare so we need to talk that one through.
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There is no need to complicate what is actually a simple issue. Certain things are plain wrong, and those who consider them right have been indoctrinated or lack mental development, or both. A sign of insanity is to regard unspeakable actions as rational, as did the Nazis.. ISIS is an example of people having insanity instilled into them, causing them to accept teachings which are actually ridiculous. A person may have several doctorates and yet have certain logic centres in the brain permanently turned off.
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Thank you for the follow. Interesting post, BTW.
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I disagree
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With which aspect, and why? Does ‘culture’ condone barbarism?
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I apologize for missing that post. I have corrected the situation and given my disgust on the matter at that site.
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Thanks!
I think it was posted before we connected.
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Great start to the day catching up on your posts! Your little ‘Neethling’ is gorgeous.
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This particular one isn’t so great – but I rarely get so serious. Is!
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CONTROVERSY is the name of the game, Col. Anything written UNDER controversial HEADLINES will work – I think! Don’t ask me what that says about the human race/species.
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There shouldn’t even BE any, on this one. It is barbarity, period.
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uhmmmm i think you should try and learn about other people’s religions first before lending an opinion..I am African and in my culture the slaughtering of any “creature” is not for excitement or public enjoyment so i don’t know where you get your stupid and uneducated facts from..read a book or sum man!
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I am fully aware of the culture – and it echoes certain aspects which have belonged to most but which have been abandoned as reasoning abilities advanced. The continuation of any culture which is utterly backward and suited to savages is truly allied to stupidity and lack of education; there should be recognition that these parts of customs belong to a bygone age and are against decent morality. Should it be argued that slavery is OK because it was part of long-standing custom and has tacit acceptance in religious writings? Was apartheid OK because it was in line with Afrikaans culture?
The blind belief in the fact that some religious benefit comes from killing any creature in an inhumane way is a true example of failure to use reasoning faculties.
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I am against slaughter, ritual or or war.
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In war, some conscious choices are involved on both sides.
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The way some humans treat animals is appalling.
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Fair’s fair. They should have the same treatment.
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so agreed ……..
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Those not in agreement don’t seem very vocal, do they? Probably can’t read.
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It is awful the way some people can just accept torturing animals for whatever reason, ritual or not it should be banned and enforced.
nasty things happen here in Bulgaria and its like trying to hold back an incoming tide…too many small villages hidden away from view……so people do nasty things to poor innocent creatures
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All one can do is try to get the idea slowly filtering through that this is the wrong way to go, unbecoming of decent people.
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Utter agreement from me: it must be stopped.
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Those responsible should be invited to join this century, indeed.
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er, I live in a country where ritual slaughtering still happens. It’s true what you said though, if you have to do it, don’t do it in front of the kids. There’s no point talking about updating international legislation either because the govt will most likely not sign it. They haven’t even fully adopted human rights legislation here, and witch doctors are still alive and kicking 😦
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If enougn people start chirping about it loudly enough, governments will have to listen.
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There is a blog I follow that covers all sorts of atrocities toward animals both in the wild and in processing environments (the author is an activist trying to stop as much as she can), and sometimes I confess to having the desire to be present when people do certain thing . . . preferably with my guns.
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I know EXACTLY what you mean.
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I can’t bear to think about ritual slaughter, I could just weep. I cannot understand why it continues. By now surely there should be some symbol to be used instead of returning to this barbaric act
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The trouble is that these twits believe that God/Allah/Ancestors want it done that way …
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yet again is it not down to education and or interpretation?
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Even in the modern era, some people would prefer to trust witchdoctors and muti than doctors and medicine.
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