From January 1, 2013, Poland's Muslims and Jews were both affected by a European Union ban on ritual slaughter after lawmakers deemed halal and kosher practices incompatible with animal rights legislation, specifically the Animal Protection Law of 1997. In December 2014, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled the ban unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated freedom of religion guaranteed by the Polish laws and constitution. Both ways of slaughtering animals were illegal in the country between January 1, 2013 and December, 2014, almost two years, and still is a controversial topic because of the concern of animal cruelty by those practices.