Muslim ceremony involving religious slaughter disturbed by pro-animals activists in Poland

WARSAW, Poland – Animal rights activists in Poland have disturbed the start of an Islamic holiday which involves the recently banned slaughter of conscious animals.

A group of angry animal rights activists on Tuesday tried to prevent Muslim community in Bohoniki, in eastern Poland, from proceeding with the Eid al-Adha holiday, or Feast of Sacrifice, that includes cutting the throats of conscious animals.

Poland's top Muslim leader, Mufti Tomasz Miskiewicz, said the ceremony would proceed according to tradition.

Effective this year, Polish law requires all animals to be stunned before they are culled and the procedure is performed at a slaughter house. The law has hit the religious practices of Poland's Jewish and Muslim minorities, though their rights are guaranteed by the constitution.