Ever since I learned shechita and shechted animals - chickens, duck, goose, turkey, sheep, and cows - I have questioned the original assumption. From my experience, both in witnessing shechita done by others and by my own performance of shechita, it looks to me to be anything but painless.
Granted, I have no idea what the animal actually feels at what point. I am not a biologist or a scientist, I do not talk to animals - or at least I do not understand when they talk to me, and I have no scientific studies to back me up. But it does not look to be painless.
True, halacha declares the animal to be dead immediately upon the cutting of the trachea and/or esophagus, so halachically the animal is immediately dead. And perhaps the animal feels nothing of what it experiences after the simanim have been cut. And perhaps out of all the possible methods this is still the most humane method and perhaps it is the method that gives it the last amount of pain possible. it just, to me, never looks to be painless.
Mind you, I do not have a problem with pain in shechita. It is not tzaar baalei chaim as it is for a purpose and for a benefit. We have to minimize the pain and distress as much as possible - but some pain, however much is necessary at minimum, is acceptable in halacha and therefore to me. As long as the process is not excessive in the pain it causes and does not cause unnecessary pain, it is acceptable.
Last year there was an expose on Tnuva's slaughterhouse (Adom Adom). What looked like tremendous cruelty to the cattle was exposed to the public in the expose. After the expose, haredi activist Ruth Colian sued Tnuva for cruelty to animals, rendering the animals possibly even not kosher in some situations and at least not mehadrin after such cruelty.
With the suit soon coming to court, Tnuva has issued a response. They do not deny the allegations of cruelty, but their defense is to confirm the cruelty. Tnuva says that shechita does cause pain to animals. "in order to slaughter the animals, they have to be gathered into a trap box, totally conscious and sometimes groaning in fear. In this box they are grabbed and pressed with force against the body and head. After that they are flipped over 180 degrees and then slaughtered - the neck is sliced through and they are left to bleed to unconsciousness. Even though the behavior shown in the video is completely legal and standard, it would definitely cause shock and pain to most unsuspecting viewers."
Furthermore, Tnuva rejects the claim that they should have informed the public of the process and of the pain the animal goes through. Tnuva says that the consumer never knows the process of production of the products they consume. They do not know the process of how sports shoes are made, how cornflakes are made, or toilet paper. The same, they say, with meat production - this information is what the consumer specifically does not want to know. They want to be able to enjoy their meat while pushing away the thought of the pain caused to the animal in the process.
Tnuva basically confirmed what I learned from being involved in shechita.
That is not to say that what Tnuva was doing, what was exposed in the video, was perfectly ok. It must be analyzed and judged to see if they were using excessive force and unusual cruelty. Tnuva claims that they looked into the incidents recorded and say it was an exception to their normal practice, and they have taken steps to rectify it. The factory manager was fired, the contract workers who were abusing the animals were let go, procedures were changed and rules were tightened, there were changes to the actual physical implements and structures in the factory, video camera surveillance was installed, electric shockers have been banned form the premises, etc. Tnuva regrets what happened and is working to ensure it won't happen again.
(source: Kikar)
So, no. Shechita is not painless, but excessive cruelty and causing unnecessary pain is unacceptable.
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"It is not tzaar baalei chaim..."
ReplyDeleteActually, the point of your post is that it IS tzaar, but it's mutar because it's for a purpose, no?
true. even though tzaar baalei chaim just means pain to a living thing, I think of it as being automatically a negative. tzaar baalei chaim is referred to as the issur, but in essence you are right.
DeleteRafi, you have just captured an essence of the argument between the secular and orthodox view.
ReplyDeleteA secular Jew sees the laws of Kashrut/shechita, what the rules were, how they were written, their placement in the bible, etc, and admires the history of our people for having animal cruelty laws 'on the books' thousands of years ago. And until recently, (50 years or so?) shechita remained relatively painless in comparison to other forms of animal slaughter.
Furthermore, the process of shechita allows bodily fluids to easily and quickly drain from the animal which prevents bacteria and other organisims from infecting the dead animal. Which again, fits with many food laws in the bible which have at their core, safety for those consuming the food. ie: pig before the age of refrigeration.
However, with modern technology, the process can be done in other methods with less pain and with sterilization and refrigeration techniques that even safer for the consumer. Thus, while the rules of the bible made sense for a long period of time, we can do better now.
An orthodox Jew says, that might sound nice and logical but its not true, we do it cuz god said so and thats that. Has nothing to do with cruelty, pain or food safety. God said and we can't change.
Forest for the trees
Rafi, your wrote, "I am not a biologist or a scientist, I do not talk to animals - or at least I do not understand when they talk to me, and I have no scientific studies to back me up. But it does not look to be painless."
ReplyDeleteThe very revered late former Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzchak Isaac Halevi Herzog, when he was Chief Rabbi of Ireland previously, appeared before a parlimentary committee, and convinced the members with all the scientific details available at the time, as well as describing how sharp the knife had to be to cause instantaneous death, convinced the committee not only to allow shechita in Ireland, but to have it enforced by law. (I have a copy of the report). There is no doubt that shechita causes at least a little pain, however there is enough evidence to know that it is the least possible pain. What you see the animal doing after the shechita is after he is brain and heart dead, and is the nerves having their final activities causing involunatary movements. Other methods of killing like stunning, electrical shocks etc cause wounds which make the animal automatically treif. The conditions in which the poor animals are held, how they are treated prior to the shechita is a different subject entireley, is cruely, and should be avoided, if the animal is to be kosher, but unfortunately the Rabbis don't make it a requirement. Bu there are worse situations. Ireland once had an agreement with Libya to sell live cattle, send on ships to Libya to be killed by Muslim Law. The conditions on the ship were terrible, very squashed, the animals were sick, many died, and those that survived were then "Muslim halachically" slaughtered. Israel would never do such a thing, as they send shochtim abroad to Argentina, Ireland etc.
I am aware of that, but the problem with it is, which is why I did not include the sharpness of the knife and the brain death, etc. that halacha does not require the knife to be any certasin level of sharpness, only smooth. the halacha explicitly states that the knife can technically be dull and the shochet can be cutting non-stop all day and that is acceptable as well. we clearly prefer a sharp knife, but it is not required.
Deletealso, regarding brain death, the obligation is only to cut the trachea and/or esophagus, not the arteries. The fact that we prefer to cut the arteries does not turn it into a requirement. And again, that then cannot be used in the defense of it being a pain-free shechita. sometimes it will be, when the arteries are cut, but sometimes it wont be, when the shochet misses the arteries.