Nadene Goldfoot
On the last day of Chanukah, I have heard of something happening last year to the orthodox meat industry in Belgium. Jewish and Muslim groups slammed a European Court ruling requiring animals to be stunned before slaughter for food as an assault on their religious freedoms and traditions. An umbrella organization of Jewish groups in Belgium denigrated the ruling for giving priority to “animal rights” over “democracy” and respect for the rights of minority groups.
According to Kashrut or Jewish law, " The animal must be slaughtered quickly and humanely. This means that a special man trained in doing this called the shokhet, who does the deed. He must also be very pious and be certified by the rabbis. This goes all the way back to Deut. 12:21. He says a prayer before the slaughter. He must use a very sharp knife. The throat of the animal is cut quickly so as not to cause pain. This severs the trachea, oesophagus, two vagus nerves and both carotid arteries and the jugular veins. The animal then loses consciousness in two seconds. The blood must drain cleanly from the animal after death. This takes away toxins that are released the moment of death that got into the bloodstream at that time."
It is to be handled in a way not to alarm or scare the animal, so they should not be entering the killing field with the whole herd so as not to alarm them. The feelings of the animal, any animal, always comes first, even with meat eaters. Of course, all this has driven many rabbis into becoming vegetarians for this very reason. But they are still dealing with people who must eat eat; and at least that is also limited to only certain ones such as cattle and sheep. Jews do not eat horses or dogs, or camels, etc. There is a criteria, a biological one listed for consumption. (read my article on kashrut listed below).
An example of this is that my father started life as a kosher butcher working for someone else. He was able to advance and finally had his own meat packing business, Silver Falls Meat Packing in Portland, Oregon. His grandson, my son, became a vegetarian and told everyone he met not to eat meat. We used to kid that he was so bad for business! At least he was raised to know that animals had feelings which makes people who do be more aware of everyone's feelings; animal and man, and that's the whole idea behind this law.
""This decision goes even further than expected and flies in the face of recent statements from the European institutions that Jewish life is to be treasured and respected," said Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt.
But the Flanders government in northern Belgium hailed Thursday's decision, with nationalist animal welfare minister Ben Weyts saying "we're today writing history". Animal rights group Gaia said it was a great day and the culmination of a 25-year struggle.
The ruling came as a surprise as it went contrary to a recommendation in September to quash the Flemish law by the Court's Advocate General, who said stricter animal welfare rules were allowed if the "core" religious practice was not encroached upon."
The whole point of kosher kill, developed under Moses, is to NOT cause pain in the act of killing for human consumption. Cutting the throat is the fastest and least painful way of dying known in ancient days and today. Now the Belgium law is adding the added pain of being knocked out. The animal must be taken to the slaughter house if not there already and then be killed.
Unless meat has been stamped with the acceptable stamps of being kosher, and there are several of them in various levels of acceptance, the meat will not sell to those only buying kosher meat. This wouldn't go over in the American orthodox community. A wholesale meat company cannot get the stamp unless they follow these explicit directions in full view of a rabbi, there to give the stamp of approval.
In most meat packing industries, shooting the animal as it comes down the plank, right between the eyes by a man with the gun is the usual way it happens. How fast does death happen this way, and how does the animal feel in the process? Frightened?
When the scare was on about the Mad Cow Disease, I read the book called Slaughterhouse, a true expo on the industry 30 years ago or more in the United States. My father's plant won the award of having the example of how slaughterhouses should be designed.
As for Belgium, I wonder if they can buy kosher meat from Israel? Check the kashrut stamp, Belgiums, wherever you buy it from.
Resource:
https://www.debka.com/mivzak/the-european-court-bans-ritual-slaughter-of-livestock/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55344971 (per above)
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/01/differences-between-kosher-and-halal.html
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/slaughter/slaughterhouse.html
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