New Zealand’s new Animal Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) Code has banned kosher slaughtering by requiring that all animals slaughtered commercially be stunned prior to killing. The law still allows kosher meat to be imported from other countries.
Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of Sydney’s the Great Synagogue has denounced the law as based on “misplaced values, bad science and bad legislation.”
Our own Humane Slaughter Act (7 U.S.C. 1901),exempts ritual slaughter. See Jones v. Butz, 374 F. Supp. 1284 (S.D.N.Y. 1974); aff’d, 95 S.Ct. 22 319 US 806, 42 L.Ed.2d 806 (1974).
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Claims of incredible bias require incredible evidence. Be specific or otherwise you’re just making a generalization absent proof, Bruce.
Here is a nice primer on kosher slaughter: http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm#Shechitah
I’m disturbed at the tone of the comments. I was raised believing that liberalism was supportive of religious liberties. And it is not like Jews are trying to convert the entire world by the sword, or with endless street corner appeals. We just want to do our thing. Yet, the comments here show incredible bias worthy of Hellen Thomas.
Sean is correct. It’s about causing the least pain and distress to the animal. The only way to do this is to stun the animal prior to slaughter. Nz’s law is about animal welfare and as a Jew I support it. I only wish other countries would make it compulsary to stun animals prior to slaughter.
Gyges:
very funny, I went to a college costume party with a friend as beer importers-we had a cooler filled with 4 or 5 different imported beers and were just wearing street clothes. No one got that either, they all thought we were crazy but they liked the beer.
Woosty,
In college I made a point of going to Halloween parties in costumes that I didn’t have to dress up as. My two favorites were the year I went as Soylent Green and the year I went as a guy whose calender is a month off.
You’d be saddened by how few drunken college girls got either of those jokes.
NZ hasn’t banned kosher slaughter – they have required all commerically killed livestock to be pre-stunned. That fits with the high animal welfare expectations of the New Zealand community.
Without pre-stunning a throat cut cattle beast, no matter how well done, remains conscious for a period of 10-50 seconds due to continued blood flow through vessels above the spine. So they bleed out while conscious. Stunned cattle are unconscious – and feel no pain – while this occurs. Halal slaughter in NZ is allowed as pre-stunning is acceptable within the religious process. Simple as that. As to taste – my experience is a stunned cattle beast is much less aware of what is about to happen and more relaxed = more tender meat.
I always thought Kosher was MORE humanely killed…kind of like that scene in Soylent Green when the old guy lays down with his movie and music and ‘special coctail’….I do believe that a frightened animal probably makes less tasty meat. Even aside from the thought of eating something whose last moments were filled with horror and pain, I think chemicals and hormones remain active….’fear’ produced hormones that are still active when you eat may be able to act on your own tissues. Ever hear someone describe an aggressive person as having had too much red meat? Antibiotics and hormones in our cattle and milk are probably responsible for those immune deficient 10 year old girls shopping for ‘DD’ cup bras.
Buddha,
Not to mention the lactic acid build up in the muscles. “The Science of Cooking” has a great run down of the issue
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Cooking-Peter-Barham/dp/3540674667
@ ShireNomad
If I get handed a Kosher or Halal yoghurt (everyone on the plane was getting them), why am I expected not feel it is important for my beliefs?
My belief is that it’s absurd superstitious nonsense and I refuse to participate by acceptance in submission to it. If it’s important to “them”, then I claim non-Kosher (non-Halal) as important to ME.
Airlines (as an example) that decide that the majority will just go along with it so they can pander to a minority should be asked the question; what alternative will you now provide the majority that don’t want it?
The answer is simple; atheism for all! End the tribal garbage.
@Moran and @Mespo:
Am I Muslim? No. Am I an “all religions are right” type? No, I think Islam is incorrect. Do I follow any religious dietary requirements myself? No.
With that said, would I even consider calling a Muslim (or Jew, or whatever) “ignorant” or “superstitious” for shying away from ham sandwiches? Not by a longshot. If I don’t give their beliefs respect, regardless of my own opinion of them, how can I expect their practitioners to respect me? Whatever might be said about halal or kosher’s spiritual correctness, there is at the least nothing harmful about them, so I see no reason either to criticize their eating habits or to avoid their yoghurt as if it had a deadly curse on it.
Buddha,
Thanks, that does help explain the broad outline. I’m still curious what exactly stops them from just stunning the animal first–the thought that that is actually less humane?
I always thought kosher slaughtering was relatively humane, as the link LaughingBuddha provided says. of course there is pre-modern praying involved but the animals probably don’t care.
The horrors of regular industrial meat poduction are well-documented. Maybe they have cleaned that up in NZ. But picking on Kosher seems a bit picayune.
By the way, just to be clear, Halal is a Muslim thing not a Jewish thing.
James,
Check out the link I provided. That should answer your questions about Kosher slaughter.
Has anyone seen the price of lamb lately? It is sky high, evidently due to the closure of a major New Zealand abattoir and drought conditions.
The last thing we need from New Zealand authorities is a reduction in yummy yummy lamb output. I want my lamb chops at a reasonable price!
Maybe we could entice Uma Thurman to go down there with her Hatari Hanso for a while. Lamb chops would soon be $0.99 a pound.
Does anybody know what exactly is required for kosher slaughtering? I’m finding it hard to believe that there is really a requirement: “Thou shalt not taser thy chickens before slaughtering.”
Actually, dead is not equally dead. There is an argument often heard in foodie circles that humanely treated and slaughtered animals taste better because the tissue isn’t corrupted with the toxins created by the fear response (namely epinephrine).
http://oukosher.org/index.php/common/article/setting_the_record_straight_on_kosher_slaughter/
Is it a religious practice? Most certainly. But it has been my experience that the practices often do yield a better tasting end product.
@ mespo.
Sure thing.
Pete Moran:
Wonderful rebuttal to ignorance.
A few years ago I was “spoken to” on arrival after having caused a scene on a flight between Sydney and LA.
For breakfast I was handed a “Halal Certified” yoghurt. I asked the attendant for one that wasn’t “Halal”; she was completely confused – why would that be important?
I explained that if “their” stupid superstitions were important for “them” then what I consider important should also be provided. They didn’t get it. I was a bit upset.
It’s TWO THOUSAND AND TEN and well past time to put these full-of-faith and tribal superstitions behind us all.
Well, well. Some people are gonna bitch about being hung with a new rope. But dead is dead. Oy…..