New Zealand – Agriculture Minister David Carter has rejected a recommendation from advisers that Jewish ritual slaughter of livestock be exempted from animal welfare rules to allow killing animals without preliminary stunning.
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Animal welfare advisers had called for the ritual shechita slaughter to be allowed under the Bill of Rights – which provides for freedom of religious practice – but Mr Carter has issued the new code of welfare with a requirement that all animals commercially slaughtered first be stunned.
The issue of pre-stunning sheep and cattle before they are bled out has historically been an issue in some Muslim export markets for livestock killed by halal slaughtermen in New Zealand.
Halal slaughtermen cut the throats of animals electrically stunned in a way that does not kill them, and there have been no submissions from local communities opposing this.
Shechita slaughter requires cutting of the trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries and jugular veins using a sharp blade so there is no tearing or pausing and allowing the blood to drain out. The animal cannot be stunned or unconscious.
The minister’s National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (Nawac) first recommended a dispensation for the kosher, or acceptable to Jews, kill in 2001, but most recently said it would prefer there were no exemptions from the requirement that all animals slaughtered commercially were first stunned.
It said that there was evidence that calves which simply had their throats cut experienced pain, and it had the “strongly held” view that the cattle, sheep, goats and possibly poultry would experience similar pain.
However “this preferred position would deny the Jewish community in New Zealand access to locally-grown and commercially-killed kosher meat,” the committee said in a report on its code.
It warned that shechita slaughter raised major welfare concerns: sheep, goats and poultry were likely to feel pain for between five and 22 seconds before blood loss caused unconsciousness. Cattle could suffer a minute or more but requiring them to be stunned immediately after having their throat cut would put them on the same level of suffering as the smaller animals.
Nawac advisers were “totally opposed” to the development of an export trade in kosher meat, because that would mean a vast increase in the numbers killed without stunning.
The committee said the Auckland Hebrew Congregation had accepted stunning because it seemed “a little hypocritical” for Jews to buy kosher meat in NZ that had been killed in Australia with pre-stunning, but at the same time to seek a different ruling in New Zealand.
Poster no. 1 confused the article and the real world. The article says the Aukland hashgacah group decided not to oppose the new rules on stunning because that was already the practice among kosher slaughterhouses in Australia, which is where they would have to get the meat if they did not schecht it in New Zealand. How can stunning be OK for the frum jews in Australia but not New Zealand??? Also, not all of the slaughterhouses in either country are lubavitch (ie. “chassideshe”).
The writer of the article states erroneously that the New Zealand Jewish community accepts pre-stunning. Since I was the person who issued the ruling while I resided in New Zealand I can tell you verbatim what was said.
The frum community in Great Britain was trying to introduce a policy where the Jewish community could wait 30 seconds after shechitah be for stunning. They had tried to push for that policy in New Zealand in order to set a legal precedence for other commonwealth countries. However since the New Zealand Jewish community had been purchasing meat from Australia and the Australians were not waiting 30 seconds after shechitah it seemed rather hypocritical to demand a greater chumrah than the vaad Hakashrut in Australia.
Once again the previous policy was always to stun after shechitah and never prior to shechitah. The only leniency used in the Australasian communities was not to demand a full 30 second delay.
Hope this clarifies the matter.
Rubashkin was only ” the canary in the mineshaft” . Part 1 of a worldwide effort to ban shechita.
this is a ridiculous law being that hunting is perfectly legal in new Zealand (field and stream 2 months ago edition)
In Australia, the animals are stunned AFTER not before shachita. It’s still not preferred,but not treif
I am amazed at the arrogance and ignorance of those writing. While there appears to be some familiarity with halachah and the American legal system; there is limited or non existence of the legal codes of other countries. In New Zealand all importation of fresh and frozen meats are very limited while there is absolutely no importation of any poultry products. Therefore the ability for those trying to keep kosher is vastly different to people residing in the USA and also almost double to cost.
An average chicken cost in in excess of $25 while a rib steak would cost almost $25 per pound. anyone caught bringing in forbidden foods could be jailed or fined with a minimum fine of two hundred dollars and a maximum of $10,000.
The same people who are screaming about this were happy in France’s burka ban and laughed for joy when Muslims had trouble getting a permit for a mosque in Manhattan.
Now you’re purple with rage when the same standards are applied to you.
Idiots. If you want freedom and respect for your own beliefs you have to stand up for them in others.
If I remember correctly, the Sridei Aish was dealing with a Nazi law requiring stunning. He also conditioned his psak on the concurrence of other gedolim, and specifically referred his psak to Reb Chaim Ozer for his opinion. Reb Chaim Ozer asked him not to issue the psak, because laws requiring stunning would follow in other countries. As a result, the Sridei Aish never issued a pask to be followed in practice.
to all the smart people who say nazis to prove animal right people hate people lack a basic understanding of science or what is considered proof.
If I show you one person or a few people who went to yeshiva and are now in prison thus that mean yeshiva learning causes people to commit crimes. Or, that all people who went to yeshiva will end up in prison?
I’ll tell you a story…
Once I had to be in the hospital, and I left the hospital for shabbos to walk to a Chabad (I was never so happy to hear that the rebbe is ‘mashiach’ as I was that shabbos, chotshik I was in shul…). On the way to shul I saw a bunch of protestors with signs about how terrible animal testing is for medicine. I saw there was a news camera there, so I decided to stir the pot, and say the exact opposite of what they were saying…..
I walked up to one of them and said “I totally disagree with you, we need to do the testing while the animal is alive so that we can help people” and just then the wind knocked off my kappel, and I asked the protester to please pick it up and she said “no! you do it!”, so I lifted up my sleeve and showed the hospital bracelet and said “you see, you have so much feeling for those animals, but a patient in the hospital you make bend over”.
As much as I believe there are many ways to be mattir this, and if we would spend the brain power that we put in to assering things into this, we might help some Jews, but I still think that New Zealand will soon have a natural disaster…
Rishoim! Kol Ha’achzor al HaRachmanim….
“The committee said the Auckland Hebrew Congregation had accepted stunning because it seemed ‘a little hypocritical’ for Jews to buy kosher meat in NZ that had been killed in Australia with pre-stunning, but at the same time to seek a different ruling in New Zealand. “
This is completely untrue. In Australia gassos are stunned AFTER shechitah, not before, and dakos and ofos are not stunned at all. And the Auckland kehillah did NOT accept pre-shechita stunning.
The main issue here is how New Zealand conducted their studies on shechitah. They used a regular knife and not the kind of knife that is used in shechitah so of course the animals would feel more pain. The studies were conducted in a way that shechitah is not.
Even in pre-war Europe where shechitah was outlawed unless the animal was stunned previously no rov ever permitted this.In Australia the animals are stunned after shechita(.not before).
Suggestion …. lets do a test on this Carter Rosha Yemach Sh’mo. Maybe he could tell us how long he feels pain for?
As a Jew from New Zealand who still has aparents living there and buying kosher meat out outrageous prices, a few clarifications:
– Both New Zealand and Australia stun animals AFTER Shechita, not before as the article implied.
– The new law is against the recommendation of the Animal Welfare Advisery Comittee, and seems to be the result os a few PETA-like lobbiests.
– The law is currently being appealed by the NZ Jewish Council and the Rabbanite. It’ll be interesting ti see the results…
Additional info is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/2bfxx6m
I agree with New Zealand. Current killing is OK for poultry, but not for mammals such as beef, etc.
The muslim way is better then a) cutting the throat, and before the animal is unconscious, pulling out the tongue and larnx so that the other animals do not panic.
I remember reading it was 33% or 40|% of the kommandents of the concentrations camps had PHd’s so your theory of secular studies stinks in my book and I have Law degree and am Charedi