Berlin - Germany's main Jewish group rejected Wednesday criticism of kosher slaughter practices, and was immediately backed by a Turkish group in Germany speaking on behalf of Moslems.

Both Islam and Judaism reject the stunning of animals before slaughter and prescribe that animals be killed by a swift throat cut.

Germany's federal chamber of veterinarians had earlier called kosher and halal slaughter "cruelty to animals."

The body's president, Ernst Breitling, demanded a change in German law to end an exemption for minority butchers which he said had allowed 500,000 sheep to be slaughtered annually in this way.

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, dismissed the demand, saying it encouraged anti-religious prejudice.

"The prevention of cruelty to animals has the highest priority in Judaism and prevailed long before animal-protection societies and laws existed," he said in Berlin.

Only trained butchers were allowed to do such slaughtering and the animal lost consciousness within seconds this way. He denied stunning was more humane.

The Turkish Society in Germany, a secular group with mainly Moslem members, agreed. Its president, Kenan Kolat, said in Berlin the halal slaughter method in Islam killed animals without any cruelty. (dpa)