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December 3, 2004/Kislev 20 5765, Vol. 57, No. 14
PETA questions kosher slaughtering
PETER EPHROSS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - It's not every day that people affiliated with a strident animal-rights group talk turkey with those who oversee kosher slaughter.
But that's exactly what happened Nov. 30, when an unpaid adviser to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) discussed allegations of improper slaughtering practices at an Iowa kosher plant with the head of the Orthodox Union's kashrut division.
Talks involving Aaron Gross, a doctoral student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Rabbi Menachem Genack were the latest development in a story that has placed the slaughter practices at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, under scrutiny.
The talks came one day after PETA filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The complaint alleges the plant is violating Jewish law by not instantly killing the animals - therefore violating U.S. laws, which allow for Jewish ritual slaughter.
The controversy - which has alarmed some Orthodox institutions - is being seen as the most widely publicized dispute over kosher slaughter in the United States in a decade.
At issue is an undercover video taken by PETA-affiliated individuals between last July and September that shows animals being slaughtered at the Agriprocessors plant, which processes meat for the Rubashkin/Aaron's Best label.
One of the plant's supervisors is the Orthodox Union, a major supervisor of kosher food in the United States.
In the gory video, one slaughterer cuts a cow's throat, resulting in extensive bleeding, while another removes the trachea.
"This not how shechitah is supposed to be done," Tal Ronnen, a spokesman for the Norfolk, Va.-based PETA, said.
"If it's done correctly, the animal is supposed to be dead in 30 seconds to one minute."
"We thought it was in consonance with the Halacha," the O.U.'s Genack said after viewing the video.
PETA's letter to the USDA details what it calls violations of the 1902 Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act. The letter claims that by violating halachic procedures, the company is violating the legislation, under which animals can be killed according to Jewish law.
Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA, said the agency was waiting to review the video before deciding how to handle the complaint.
Agriprocessors released a statement this week saying "Agriprocessors does not control anything that happens in the kosher ritual processes. We adhere strictly to the instructions given to us by the rabbinic authorities and will continue to do so."
Some Orthodox officials called PETA's campaign an attack on shechitah more generally a part of a history of anti-Semitic canards.
"Shechitah often comes under attack by elements that are unsavory, and in general PETA is not an organization that commands our great respect," said Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, a fervently Orthodox organization.
He and others noted the Nazis publicized photographs of Jews performing cruel slaughter practices as part of their campaign to inflame sentiment against Jews.
"We'll put them on the wall with Hitler," Nathan Lewin, an Orthodox Jew and a lawyer for Agriprocessors, said, referring to PETA.
Those affiliated with PETA said the group is not going after kosher slaughter, but just those practices at Agriprocessors. Further, they say PETA is sensitive to issues of anti-Semitism.
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