A Washington state appellate court ruled July 25 against an animal protection group’s bid to strike down as unconstitutional a law protecting religious slaughter.

The three-judge panel in Seattle was unanimous in rejecting the suit.

The state law defines as humane stunning an animal before slaughter (which is the conventional means of slaughter) and severing the carotid artery (which is the method used in Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter).

Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal protection group, said the law was unconstitutional in part because it favored religious ritual over other methods. The court rejected the claim, saying that invalidating part of an act while upholding another would usurp the state Legislature. — jta