Humane Today, Gone Tomorrow
My friend Frederik sent me a link to an article which appeared in the London Evening Standard on attempts by an English animal rights organization to ban kosher ritual slaughter. Fortunately, I was able to find an email address for the president of that organization. Here's the result:
Dr. Judy MacArthur Clark
Chairwoman, Farm Animal Welfare Council
Dear Dr. Clark--
Your objection to methods used by observant Jews and Moslems to slaughter their animals has come to my attention through a recent article in the London Evening Standard online edition.
As an observant Jew, I cannot speak for the halal method of slaughter, but I can speak about kosher slaughter. Have you ever witnessed a kosher slaughter? Perhaps you should, so that you can see for yourself the humane treatment accorded animals by shochtim (Jewish ritual slaughterers).
Among other things, the shochet places his hands on the head of the animal, in much the same way as he blesses his children on the Sabbath. This not only calms the animal prior to slaugher, but imprints on the shochet the grave responsibility he has to treat the animal with humanity and dignity.
Just because stunning an animal prior to slaughter is more "high-tech," it's not necessarily more humane. An animal that is slaughtered by the kosher method may take a negligable amount of time longer to lose consciousness, but there is no telling what the stunning does to the animal on either a physical or spiritual level, because the animal is unable to let us know. I'm confident that some other technology will eventually come along to replace stunning (when I was a youngster, they use to shoot them), driven by "humane" or maybe financial considerations. But the kosher method has been used by Jews for thousands of years (while others were still clubbing), and has always been praised as the most humane of methods.
Spiritual laws are timeless, and transcend "trendy" movements like animal rights. Well after "civilized" people find it convenient to give up their civility, for whatever reason, the Jewish people will continue to follow their timeless tradition of humane treatment of animals, including their slaughter methods. I hope that you will reconsider your position on this matter so that the positive relationships developed over 350 years between the Jews of England and their fellow countrymen may proceed undisturbed.
By the way, if you're so moved, the Standard has a poll running on the subject, so be sure to click and be heard.
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