Barbara Kay: The Optics of Restrictions on the Kosher Slaughter of Animals in Canada Are Not Good

Commentary You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who will defend animal suffering as a value in itself. But few of us are animal rights absolutists—that is, who believe animals have the right not to be killed for human sustenance. Most of us are, rather, animal welfarists, who want animals to lead stress-free lives, however short, with as painless a death as possible. Animal welfare and animal rights occasionally coincide on issues like fox hunting, fur-trapping (once a status symbol, used fur coats can be had for peanuts; wearing fur is as taboo as public smoking) and, a century ago, the commercial trade in bird feathers to adorn women’s hats. We owe the public demand for free-range chickens and grass-raised cattle to these tireless animal advocates, and more power to them....