The organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made headlines in 2004 with its criticism of a kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa — and there is still a lot to learn from that incident.
Rabbi Menachem Rapoport, director of the Joseph and Rebecca Peltz Center for Jewish Life, located in Mequon, presented much of that information and defended Judaism’s principles and practices of kosher slaughter in “Shechita vs. PETA,” a study session he led at the Day of Discovery this past Sunday.
“When there is discord, an attack on a group of people,” he said to a small group, communication and education go “a long way” to “debunk myths.” Judaism’s views and practices regarding animal welfare and shechita (kosher slaughter) “need a lot of explaining and education,” he said.
And Rapoport is in a position from which to do this. Before coming to Mequon and his present position some six years ago, he worked some five years as a shochet — a kosher slaughterer — and spent four of those years at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville that PETA criticized, he said.
In July-September 2004, a few years after Rapoport moved to Mequon, members of PETA infiltrated the plant with hidden video cameras.
They filmed instances of cattle that had their throats cut in the approved manner, but did not lose consciousness right away, running around for a time instead. In another instance, someone appeared to be pulling out a cow’s trachea while the animal was still alive and aware.
Rapoport charged that the PETA members took “the worst of the worst” of a tiny minority of failed slaughters and spliced them together in its video, distorting what actually happens in most instances.
‘Worth our efforts’
In his own years at Agriprocessors, only “a couple of times” did animals he had cut remain conscious or appear to be suffering for longer than a few seconds, he said.
In fact, “90 percent of the time,” the animal loses consciousness within 10 seconds after the cut is made, he said.
Rapoport also cited renowned animal biologist Temple Grandin of Colorado State University. On her Web site (www.grandin.com), she wrote a report on PETA’s Agriprocessors video in which, among other things, she stated that she had observed properly performed shechita.
“Most cattle will become unconscious and insensible within five to 10 seconds after a biologically effective cut,” she wrote. “However, sensibility can last for over a minute in a small percentage of cattle.”
“Most cattle” that received a shechita cut “just looked around before they collapsed. They appeared to not be aware that their throats had been cut,” she wrote.
Rapoport spent most of the time of the session describing the Jewish laws and principles that govern treatment of animals and shechita, and describing the procedures.
For example, the knife used, called a chalef in Hebrew, is specially designed. It has a square end and must not come to a point, to prevent any stabbing. The knife ideally should be at least twice as long as the diameter of the neck of the animal on which it is used to prevent the knife from entering the wound.
The cutting edge and the bevels on either side of the edge must be completely smooth. In fact, at a kosher slaughter plant, the blades are checked by a separate person, not the shochet, and they are rechecked continually throughout the working day.
The shochet must make the cut in one single smooth stroke, and cannot bear down on the knife or put a finger on the back of the blade to press on it. Any hesitation in the stroke, any catching of the animal’s flesh on the knife, renders the meat non-kosher.
Moreover, concern about an animal’s feelings during slaughter extends to emotions as well as sensations. The rules call for not permitting an animal to see another animal being killed, Rapoport said.
In response to a question, Rapoport said that reasons for not anesthetizing an animal before the killing — something that PETA and other animal welfare groups have demanded — include concerns that the animal will feel pain during the anesthetizing, if done by, say, a hypodermic injection; and that the chemicals will end up being eaten by consumers.
Rapoport concluded by telling the story of his great-grandfather, who was killed by Josef Stalin’s communist government in the Soviet Union for working as a shochet.
“The reason Jews are still here is because of our dedication through the generations” to upholding Jewish laws like kashrut, he said. “It is worth our efforts to make kashrut part of our lives to whatever extent we can.”
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