Shechita continuity assured in Australia…

November 1, 2011 by  
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Dr Danny Lamm, the president of the The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has written to the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to thank him for the Government decision to maintain Shechita in Australia.

 

The letter, addressed to minister Senator Joseph Ludwig reads:

Dr Danny Lamm

“Both personally and on behalf of the Australian Jewish community I write to thank you and your State Ministerial colleagues for your wise decision at the Primary Industries Ministerial Council last Friday to maintain the current legality of kosher religious slaughter of livestock (shechita) in Australia and to continue discussions with religious communities in order to settle an applicable risk management framework.

No expert contests the proposition that shechita is a humane method of slaughter.   We have all been appalled by the horrific scenes of cruelty to animals in other countries on our television screens but this has absolutely nothing to do with shechita.  Animal slaughter in Australia, including kosher slaughter, is closely monitored and regulated, and the standards of shechita itself, which forbid the mistreatment of the animal in any way, are very exacting.  We are always happy to discuss with your scientific officers whether advances in science and technology make it possible to improve existing methods without violating Jewish religious law.

Kosher slaughter has always been legally permitted in Australia and the introduction of any prohibition of what has been a lawful practice for over 200 years should not be countenanced in the absence of the most compelling and incontestable of reasons.  It was gratifying that the members of the Primary Industries Ministerial Council share our view that no such reasons exist.

Comments

12 Responses to “Shechita continuity assured in Australia…”
  1. Get Real says:

    Jewish convert and animal lover, if you truly are an animal lover you should want what is best for their welfare but clearly your religion is more important. But I think that is wrong and religious freedom ends where animal cruelty begins.
    Danny Ginges, Temple Grandin has also said on visiting a kosher abattoir, ‘This should not be happening in a civilized society.’ In my diary I wrote, ‘If hell exists, I am in it.’

    • Danny Ginges says:

      Get Real, that quote by Temple was to do with the rough handing of the animal before it was slaughtered, nothing to do with shechita. Nice try though. But if you’re that concerned about animal welfare, don’t eat meat. Stunning might look painless, but EEG and ECG studies by Schultz and Hazim at Hanover University say otherwise.

      • Get Real says:

        I think if pretty much every organisation in the world responsible for animal welfare says ritual slaughter causes suffering, including the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council, The Royal Dutch Veterinary Association, RSPCA and Compassion In World Farming, then it’s cruel. Having said that any person with a bit of common sense would agree that to cut the throat of something still conscious would obviously cause suffering. Just thinking about this barbaric practice makes me sick.

        • Danny Ginges says:

          They can say whatever they like. If there’s no evidence to support it, then it’s just an emotional argument. Is dehorning without anesthetic, castrating without anesthetic, separating newborn calves from their mothers, feedlot farming, caged egg farming, etc, etc, etc any less barbaric for you and the organisations you’ve mentioned? As I’ve said, if it makes you sick, don’t eat it. I certainly don’t.

          • Get Real says:

            No evidence to support it? Is that a joke? A study by the federal Department of Agriculture found the practice caused pain and suffering and animals remained conscious for a long time after. A review by the The Farm Animal Welfare Council says, “Such a large cut will inevitably trigger sensory input to pain centres in the brain. Our conclusions are that such an injury would result in significant pain and distress before insensibility supervenes.”

            Even The Australian Meat Industry Council and abattoir workers alike are against it. As one abattoir manager that used to kill animals without prior stunning said, “I believe all animals should be immobilised and stunned because that is the most humane way to do it,” So if even abattoir workers disagree with no pre-stunning, there can be no doubt it’s cruel. Especially if they are so against it because of that reason they stop doing it.

            I think it’s disgusting the same rules do not apply to all Australian abattoirs and we give out cruelty exemptions to some minority religious groups who need to become civilised.

    • Convert and animal lover says:

      No, I would not follow any religion that made any animal suffer. In fact I have worked in a trafe abattoir as a industrial nurse. The way the animals are treated there are appalling but on saying that I havent been to a kosher abattoir but I am more than happy to go and check one out

  2. Danny Ginges says:

    Dr Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, has been designing handling and restraining systems used in animal slaughter for over 30 years. After witnessing thousands of slaughters, she concluded that under shechita “it appears the animal is not aware that its throat has been cut.” Dr. Flemming Bager, Head of the Danish Veterinary Laboratory, came to a similar conclusion, as did Professor Harold Burrow, former Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Royal Veterinary College, London. I myself haven’t eaten meat for 30+ years for a number of reasons, the least of which is worrying that animals suffer under shechita.

  3. potb says:

    @ lulu
    Then also show evidence that the whole industrial way of slaughtering doesn’t make the animal suffer.

  4. Stan says:

    I’m with you Lulu. Jewish ritual slaughter was the most humane method of killing animals hundreds of years ago. I’m not convinced it’s the most humane method today.
    Someone please tell me I’m wrong.

  5. Jewish convert and animal lover says:

    Lulu, I am a convert to Judaism but also an animal lover. NO WAY would I have converted to a religion that allows animals to suffer. The first question I asked when considering converting is, do animals suffer. The way they are killed is so swift they dont know its happening. Its actually faster than having your pet dog or cat humanely put to sleep at the vets by injection.

    The reason its done this way is because when Jewish law was created there weren’t legalised injections to kill animals for food – lets face it, even if there was today even nobody would want to eat food contaminated with drugs. Bullets and stun guns also hadnt been invented so they werent an option either. However fast forward to present day and its still as humane and painfree as other methods – stunning, shooting etc. With those methods the meat contains stress chemicals that makes it unfit for Jews to eat, whereas meat killed according to Jewish law doesnt. Thats the only different, our meat doesnt contain those stress chemicals which obeys Jewish law – we are commanded NOT to allow animals to suffer, If those chemicals are present, one can safely assume the animal was stressed. Being locked up in a pen must make animals anxious

  6. Get Real says:

    Slaughter without stunning is cruel, disgusting and should never be allowed under any circumstances.

  7. lulu says:

    Okay, I want to see the scientific evidence that shechita doesn’t make the animal suffer! The fact that it has been lawful for 200 years, doesn’t make it right.

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