[VIDEO LINK BELOW] The following was written by Nathaniel Popper and appears in the LA Times:
Two years after U.S. kosher-food authorities said they wanted to stop use of a cattle-killing method widely criticized as inhumane, the country’s largest seller of kosher meat is importing beef from a South American plant that employs the technique, import records and an undercover video show.
The video, recorded in December by animal-rights activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals at a slaughterhouse in Uruguay, depicts cows being lifted by a chain attached to one leg and then restrained by workers for the slaughter.
[VIDEO LINK: Click HERE for the video]
PETA identified the slaughterhouse as Frigorifico Las Piedras outside Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo. The plant is a major supplier of Alle Processing in New York, according to import records.
Alle’s owner, Mottel Bergman, declined to comment on the methods used at Las Piedras, as did Enrique Badano, the South American firm’s export manager.
Meat from Las Piedras and other South America factories is used to produce most of the processed kosher meat consumed in America, including deli favorites such as salami and pastrami, kosher authorities say.
The Orthodox Union, which runs the largest U.S. organization certifying food as conforming to Jewish dietary laws, has rabbis observing the procedures at Las Piedras.
An official of the organization confirmed that the plant used the controversial killing method, “shackle and hoist.”
In 2008, after PETA released a video taken at another South American plant that exports kosher beef to Israel, the Orthodox Union said it wanted to stop certifying meat from cows killed with the shackle-and-hoist technique.
This week, Menachem Genack, chief executive of the group’s kosher certification unit, said the organization still hoped to end use of the method.
But because the previous largest U.S. kosher supplier went out of business in 2008, Genack said the group was not willing to endanger this country’s supply of kosher beef.
“We have to make sure that kosher slaughter is done in as good a fashion as possible — but I want to do that in a way that doesn’t disrupt a very fragile industry,” he said.
As a result, Genack said, the Orthodox Union is following the lead of Israel’s kosher authorities, who allow the shackle-and-hoist method because they require that cows be slaughtered while upside down if their meat is to be considered kosher.
There is a mechanical pen that can keep the animal inverted while it is killed, but it is expensive to install.
Such a pen is said to make it easier to confirm that the cut applied to the cow’s throat follows kosher requirements.
Yona Metzger, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis who oversee kosher certification in the Jewish state, two years ago promised an effort to stop use of shackle-and-hoist slaughtering.
Ezra Harari Raful, head of meat imports for the chief rabbinate, said the Israelis were pressing for change but couldn’t control the South American factory owners.
“It can only be implemented by decisions of the owners of the ritual slaughterhouses,” Raful wrote in an e-mail. “I believe that the administrators will slowly change their practices from how it currently exists to the new methods.”
But Joe Regenstein, a food science professor at Cornell University and kosher-meat expert, blamed Metzger for not forcing change upon the Israeli companies that control most of the kosher meat production in South America.
“Nothing has happened,” Regenstein said. “Unfortunately, we’re tainted by it.”
Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a shackle-and-hoist opponent, expressed frustration after seeing the latest PETA video.
“I’m getting fed up with it,” she said. “It’s a really terrible practice and it needs to stop. It’s that simple.”
The method is also more dangerous for the workers involved, said Grandin, author of “Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals.”
PETA, based in Norfolk, Va., opposes all killing of animals for meat but has said the shackle-and-hoist method is worse than alternative techniques.
Previous videos recorded by PETA’s undercover teams have had a big effect on the kosher industry.
In late 2004, a video taken at an Iowa slaughterhouse raised questions about the slaughter of cattle there and led to increased scrutiny of its owner, Agriprocessors Inc. The firm filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008 after an immigration raid at the plant.
The departure of Agriprocessors allowed Alle to become the largest U.S. kosher-meat supplier — and made the U.S. industry more dependent on South American meat.
(Source: LA Times)
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24 Responses
Perhaps the kosher meat industry would not be quite so fragile if the supply of kosher meat were increased by encouraging the consumption of non-glatt meat in Orthodoxy. More, supply=lower prices which yields a stronger industry.
PETA and all other “animal rights” organizations are nothing but terrorists, who are part of the larger leftist plan to interfere in private industry and take over and control everyones lives the same way Stalin did in Russia.
If the rabbis pasken it is within halacha that is not “inhumaine”.
These terrorists will lie and pull any underhanded trick they can in order to make it look like eating meat is “evil”.
Not one single animal “welfare group” will state that PETA are terrorists or that they are the evil ones they are, and use those words to describe PETA because they all support PETA even when they pretend not to.
The US Constitution has no provision for “animal rights” and forbids the invasion of privacy caused by these groups and the unconstitutional “animal police” who barge into peoples private property and homes and harrass people and steal their animals.
The same liberals who wanted the Patriot Act repealed because they said wiretapping jihadists and their supporters was supposedly an invasion of privacy, hypocritically support this ‘real’ invasion odf privacy which is real and far worse then the imagined invasion of privacy they falsly claimed the Patriot Act supposedly represented.
But liberalism=hypocrisy, and is against our Constitutional rights.
Check out PETAkillsanimals (dot com) and see the hypocrisy of not just PETA but other animal “rights”, groups as well.
We should treat PETA with the same degree of concern that we show towards people whose belief system requires them to believe the Jews murdered their diety, or who believe we are a racial conspiracy to take over the world. They are anti-Semites, pure and simple.
When I read an article such as this one, I look at it with a grain of salt. If PETA had its way, we would always eat vegetables only and NO ONE would consume ANY kind of animal product. As far as the Orthodox Union is concerned, their problem is political. Although they are an orthodox organization many of its member shuls are “conservadox” where “ethical kosher” is probably EQUAL in importance to “certified kosher”. The same is true for the “Rabbanut” in Israel.
It is so unfortunate that we have to deal with a bunch of crazy animal lovers at PETA and can’t just deal with what the Gedolim say to do. If the Gedolim agree that it is a cruel method then fine; but otherwise, it is a real pity that we have to make compromises with groups like this. Nu nu, one of the myriad issues with not having our own government to run Halacha. Hashiva Shoftenu…
Farf zei un.
In spite of the predictable reactions this article will get based upon people seeing the word “PETA”, PETA is totally correct and have found this violation once before in Uruguay.
Measure for measure, this is an act of Tza’ar Ba’alei Chayim.
Now everyone can have a field day hating on PETA.
7, have you ever asked a b’haima if it is any more painful than any other sh’chita method? Until you do, please shut you mouth.
I also want to once again point out that this Nathan Pooper Scooper has no chaylek in Olam Haba for all the tzar & agmas nefesh he brings on klal yisroel as he spouts his far left radical agenda.
moshiachnow01: “Measure for measure, this is an act of tzar ba’alei chayim.” If you want to claim that there is a machlokes ha’poskim on the issue and we should act l’chumra, I would understand, and perhaps consider the comment for further appreciation to ask my own question of a true gadol b’Torah. However, you categorically ignore the piskei halachah and accepted minhag of the gedolei ha’poskim in Eretz Yisroel who rule this form of shchitah is preferred. (CHaZa”L knew what is and what is not tzar ba’alei chayim. To claim otherwise is heresy.) To ignore these poskim is intolerable.
If the rabbonim rule it is ok, then it is not Tzar babli chaim.
I just hope they rule only according to Torah and do not just give into politically correct pressure but G-d willing the Rabbonim will not make assur what is mutar, to appease those who care nothing about following Torah.
Sorry I meant to say if the Rabbonim rule it is ok then it is not Tzar Bali (babli=typo) Chiam.
Umm Mark,
While you’re trying to find a source that someone who causes agmas nefesh does not have cheilek in olam habah, you may want to check up what the Gemara in Bava Metziah has to say about people who call other people by nicknames.
#1 – Perhaps so but then the big boys will make less money and that’s what it’s all about.
Did anyone video non-kosher slaughterhouses. One reliable person told me they are stunned and a deadbolt shot in above the eyes.
Sometimes the stun is not effective and the bolt misses. In these cases the non-kosher cow is eviscerated alive. (eye-witness)
Unfortunately there is kashrus politics which is perhaps the karma why Heaven allows PETA (with silent collusion from anti-religious liberal Jews) to rouse ire and comment.
I have seen this process in the slaughter houses in Detroit. It looked like the cows are in pain to me. They let out cries. Imagine 1000 lbs hanging on the weight of two legs. It shook me up.
Once again, it is a matter of money and politics.
breich529, I got no idea what the Gemora says. I know the haggada says,”Hakeh es Shinov”. That is enough for me.
I was under the impression ( from reading somewhere) that the Rabbanut and up do not accept shechita tluya, and Rav Raful’s argument is not one of stregnth or chochma. If the market demanded it, the factories would have no choice. A dislocated hip in a gasa is treifa. Is not the hoisting of a 1500 lb animal by one leg a risk of this? Would the ‘pop’ be heard over the industrial racket of chains, pneumatics, and other machinery? Is this checked for? There have also be horror stories of how whistleblower shochtim is S.A. were shabbily treated and worse when they brought the complaints to Rav Raful. It is also a structural flaw that the shochtim are in the employ of the importer and not the hashgacha. The great distance and therefor scant oversight is also not a good thing. The sum total should motivate most of us not to consume this meat. EY should develop a local goat and sheep market, and the large communities of the chutz should demand more localized shehitah that is watched by a broader range of rabbonim.
And how about stopping Hechsheirim for products from China, where people are abused? But then again aren’t there the same people who, during the holocaust, ran to save a stranded pack of horses while not allowing a boat full of frightened Jews, to dock.
#11 chiam = chaim
#19 chaim = ?
Raboisai,
Let’s face it killing makes anyone a little unnerving. But before anyone goes bonkers over this video, why don’t you google peta slaugterhouse or something similar. You’ll see stuff that goes on in the Goyishe velt that is mamesh tzaar baalei chaim.
The video of shechita is pure Rachmonus compared to the velt.
As always “derocheho darkei noiam”.
the exact google is “peta meet your meat”
#8, your crudeness belies your seeming ability to be able to type on a keyboard. Your response is no response at all. You ask a perposterous question to prove your point. May I then assume YOU asked an animal and they answered you in a way that supports your alleged view? Further, it is obvious you are frustrated because you do not recognize something called “reason”. Remain a bird if you like (parroting what you think the right views are) or join the human race and think and offer something original.
#9, easy. Your post was very informative and I will assume you are correct. If PETA is not exactly doing us a favor, but their involvement encourages an extra measure of consideration that can be applied (unless you are saying there is zero difference to the animal) then that is not such a bad thing.
Perhaps this is a bad example, but when a dentist administers a numbing shot, the shot causes a brief pinch of pain, which is not considered cruelty. These days, dentists put a numbing agent on the gum to mitigate the pain of the numbing shot (novacaine). Perhaps this is similar. I, for one, would not want to go against what is poskinned, but I would not be against employing an extra measure of comfort for the animal. In that case, PETA is doing wrong by sticking its neck into business that is not really theirs.