PETA Responds To Rabbi Avi Shafran

PETA's Ben Goldsmith has written a response to Agudath Israel's Rabbi Avi Shafran:

No one can deny that, physiologically, “where pain is concerned, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” This does not mean that all animals are morally equivalent; it simply conveys that God designed us out of flesh, blood, bone, and he endowed us with the same capacity to feel pain. No scientist will deny this, because it’s true. And watching as they struggle to stand and flee while their windpipes hang from their bloody throats, one cannot deny that the animals at AgriProcessors felt immeasurable agony and terror as they fought against death.

Indeed, our respect for the uniquely human ability to make complex moral calculations is central to our mission at PETA. As human beings, we have an obligation to make compassionate choices when possible. As Rabbi Shafran notes, for many, this calculation leads them to vegetarianism. For all, however, it should lead to profound moral outrage at the horrific and consistent cruelty to animals perpetrated by AgriProcessors for so many years.

You can read it all after the jump.

A response to Rabbi Avi Shafran’s “The PETA Principle”
by Benjamin Goldsmith, PETA

In his recent article titled “The PETA Principle,” Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel, offers his thoughts on PETA’s campaign for improved animal welfare standards at AgriProcessors. We appreciate Rabbi Shafran’s clear concern for animal welfare and would like to address the issues he raises.

In the wake of the slaughterhouse scandal, AgriProcessors has not been able to find a single scientist, animal welfare expert, or veterinarian who is willing to defend the shoddy slaughter practices we documented.

PETA, on the other hand, has received an outpouring of support from leaders in the veterinary, animal welfare, and even meat industries, as well as in the Jewish community, who were shocked by the brazenly cruel treatment of animals that has, for years, been the norm at AgriProcessors.

Dr. Temple Grandin, consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the American Meat Institute, did not mince words after viewing the tapes, stating, “I thought it was the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen.” Dr. Lester Friedlander, a former USDA kosher slaughter inspector, echoed these sentiments, writing, “The footage captured by PETA represents the most egregious violation of the USDA Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) I have ever witnessed.”

Our investigator witnessed the slaughter of 278 cattle; one-fourth were clearly and inarguably (according to scientists) still conscious after they were dumped onto the concrete floor, roughly a minute after shechita. Contrary to what one would hope and expect, for the past ten years, there have not been USDA inspectors assigned to the kill floor of any slaughterhouses. Thus, there were none there during the five hours that our investigator was present, on six occasions over the course of about seven weeks.

Three weeks after our investigation was made public, AgriProcessors killed animals properly for Dr. Levinger. Of course, this is encouraging, but it actually validates our position, proving that AgriProcessors could have slaughtered animals humanely all along but choose not to. We guarantee that of the 150 animals Dr. Levinger watched slaughtered, not one stood up or showed the other signs of consciousness that we documented in one-fourth of animals slaughtered.

AgriProcessors’ recent willingness to invite government inspectors to its plant is like a serial killer calling the police over to his house to watch him not kill people: “See, I'm not killing anyone.” Criminals may sometimes act in accordance with the law, but that does not exonerate them for their crimes. That things are so different from what we documented shows that even AgriProcessors understands that their previous actions were unacceptable.

The animal welfare community is not asking much of AgriProcessors; we are only requesting that they adopt the widely-accepted regulatory standards for religious slaughter developed by the Food Marketing Institute. These guidelines, which can be read at GoVeg.com or FMI.org, will ensure that AgriProcessors’ handling and slaughter practices are in keeping with Judaism’s inherent and laudable commitment to kindness and respect for animals.

Striking animals in the face with electric prods, ripping their tracheas and esophagi out while they’re fully conscious, slaughtering them in a haphazard way—these things were happening at AgriProcessors, in what can only be seen as a complete denial of Judaism’s firm commitment to compassion. All Jews will surely agree that the standards that PETA, along with the Rabbinic Assembly of the Conservative movement and a swelling number of Jews from across the spectrum of Judaism, recommends will ensure that kosher slaughter is consistently quick and humane, as provided for in the Torah.

No one can deny that, physiologically, “where pain is concerned, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” This does not mean that all animals are morally equivalent; it simply conveys that God designed us out of flesh, blood, bone, and he endowed us with the same capacity to feel pain. No scientist will deny this, because it’s true. And watching as they struggle to stand and flee while their windpipes hang from their bloody throats, one cannot deny that the animals at AgriProcessors felt immeasurable agony and terror as they fought against death.

Indeed, our respect for the uniquely human ability to make complex moral calculations is central to our mission at PETA. As human beings, we have an obligation to make compassionate choices when possible. As Rabbi Shafran notes, for many, this calculation leads them to vegetarianism. For all, however, it should lead to profound moral outrage at the horrific and consistent cruelty to animals perpetrated by AgriProcessors for so many years.

In closing, please consider that PETA has never been duplicitous; you may disagree with where we stand, but we have never exaggerated and we never would exaggerate. In addition to hurting our credibility, something we would not jeopardize, we have supplied our video and all relevant documentation and factual support to three government agencies. Any exaggeration on our part would be criminal in nature and would subject us to forfeiture of our nonprofit status and thus would, most likely, lead to our demise. As the world’s largest animal rights organization, with more than 800,000 members and supporters and a 25-year history, this is not something we would ever do.

After reviewing the video documentation and reading additional expert and rabbinical testimony at GoVeg.com, readers will surely agree with Rabbi Barry Schwartz of the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Task Force on Kashrut, who said, “The suffering of these animals during slaughter is sickening. Death is neither quick nor merciful. If this is kosher, then we have a big problem.”

For information on Judaism and vegetarianism, please visit the Web site run by the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, at www.JewishVeg.com.

Benjamin Goldsmith is a campaign coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Comments

[jewishwhistleblower]

Rabbi Avi Shafran and Agudath Israel's record on dealing with the pain and suffering of innocent HUMAN women and children is scandalous in of itself.

see:
http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/agudath-israel-of-america-urges.html#comments

[Yaakov Menken]

Whistleblower & Shmarya seem to share one thing in common: a willingness to distort Rabbi Shafran's comments and take them out of context.

[Shmarya]

Rabbi Menken,

Please point out any "distortions" I have made with regard to R. Shafran's article.

[Brian Carnell]

"No one can deny that, physiologically, “where pain is concerned, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” This does not mean that all animals are morally equivalent; it simply conveys that God designed us out of flesh, blood, bone, and he endowed us with the same capacity to feel pain."

This incoherent. Granting the claim for the moment, the fact that rats, pigs and dogs all feel pain in the same way might not lead us to conclude that they are morally equivalent. But I don't see how PETA can avoid that conclusion, given that it argues that simple sentience is the sole criteria for determining whether a being has rights or not.

This is exactly what is encapsulated, after all, in statements by PETA folks that even if animal research for AIDS was *guaranteed* to produce a cure for that disease, they'd still be against such research. At every turn, PETA says that it is morally impermissible for human beings to ever use animals in ways that reduce them to means rather than ends -- I'd like to see the logic that leads them to the conclusion that this does not create a clear moral equivalency between animals and human beings.

[Yaakov Menken]

Shmarya,

The above TrackBack (Kol HaPosel...) points out the distortions made with regard to R. Shafran's article.

Yaakov Menken

[Shmarya]

Rabbi Menken,

Your highly-regulated blog is not allowing me to post a comment, so I'll leave it here:

1. "When, however, the head of an inverted animal (as done at Rubashkin) is released, the head swings down towards the back of the animal, putting further distance between the sections of the carotid arteries – so re-occlusion is impossible."

That is false. All scientists I've interviewed, and several rabbis including Rabbi Belsky, have noted that occulsion happens in upside-down shechita. In fact, both Dr. Grandin and Rabbi Belsky attributed some of the conscious animals on the PETA video to occulusion.

But that does not matter. Standing shechita is very different from upside-down shechita, Because the animal is always agitated upside-down, its bleed-out rate is slower. Further, if the head does flop backward when the animal is upside-down, brain anemia is DELAYED, not hastened.

Your father may be a noted neurologist. You clearly are not.

2. "Regarding every other animal on the video, Dr. Rosen describes exactly what we saw: “after about 30 seconds, strong muscular spasms frequently cause the limbs to thrash violently.” He then explains, 'These movements are in no respect at all a conscious reaction to pain; they are reflexes due to hypoxia of the spinal cord causing abnormal efferent signals to the muscles… This phase can last for up to four minutes.'”

You are misusing Dr. Rosen. As of today, NO scientist – including Dr. Rosen – has said that the animals on the PETA video were reflex motions. In fact, all leading scientists (and several leading rabbis) have stated clearly that those animals were conscious and their movements purposeful.

3. "ASI Food Safety Consultants, of St. Louis, did an unannounced “Humane Slaughter Audit” of the plant back in February." a) According to the animal welfare and food science professionals I've spoken with, ASI is not considered to be expert in this area. b) The audit was not unannounced, it was scheduled. c) Rubashkin wrote that anyone ewho wanted a copy of the audit could get one from his spokesperson or himself. He then refused to give a copy to me, to PETA, and to several others.

4. The spokeswoman for Iowa's Agriculture Secretary was quite clear: Secretary Judge did not change her mind. She spoke only about the three animals she saw killed on a guided tour arranged and led by Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin. She again noted that it was the USDA's jurisdiction to deal with legal violations, if any. She did NOT change her opinion of the slaughter she saw on the PETA video.

You Agudah-nicks should be ashamed of yourselves.

[Steve Brizel]

Why do you accept PETA's spin on what it truely believes-animals and humans are the same on all levels. How does PETA know that man and animals "know" and "feel" the same degree of pain-only by assuming that animals have a nefesh, neshama, etc, an assumption that is contrary to the Torah's statement that only man was created in the image of G-d.

[Yaakov Menken]

Since you posted your comments on both blogs, I'll respond here as well. But I'm on to other issues. Your "facts" leave me incredulous, and I simply haven't time in the day to keep up with someone who is posting about Postville around the clock. I just wish you'd get your information straight, since it takes much longer to correct a one-line error than one line.

1. In this context, I hope people will understand that I intend to be neither snide nor to belittle Shmarya when I point out that he hasn't yet so much as understood the proper spelling of "occlusion." It's merely indicative of how little actual knowledge he is presenting. In upside-down shechita, with everything gaping wide open, occlusion (blockage) is absolutely impossible -- as you see on the video, in which the blood literally spurts out of the stumps of the carotid arteries onto the shochet's coat.

The only thing that could possibly be blocked, hanging back, is the vertebral arteries. As Dr. Rosen points out, the fact that the vertebral arteries are unblocked when standing is not a problem, because the blood first comes up to the brain via a common channel, and then chooses the path of least resistance -- and thus goes out the carotid stumps rather than travelling down the vertebral arteries (this is why blocking the carotid arteries, as could happen when the animal is standing, could conceivably prolong death). But the head swinging back and possibly compressing the vertebral arteries would only further reduce blood travelling to the brain.

An agitated animal will have more adrenaline in the system, which increases the pulse, increases the blood pressure, and diverts blood to priority areas (which is basically irrelevant, because the brain consistently receives about 20-25% of blood supply at all times). Shmarya, you don't need to go to med school to figure out that this means faster bleeding.

Ordinarily, of course, the head down would mean more blood travelling to the brain. Indeed it is all rushing to the brain -- where it exits the stump of the carotid arteries and deposits itself all over the shochet's coat, hastening the animal's speedy and painless death.

2. Can you see when a baby has an ear infection? Probably not, but any experienced mother can identify the signs. You certainly don't need an expert scientist to identify the typical signs of a successfully slaughtered animal, which any slaughterer (kosher or not) has seen multiple times every work day. Every "expert" who has visited the plant has been impressed with the humane-ness of the operation -- some, like Patty Judge, replacing her initial, uninformed criticism with praise. There's a reason why experts at every reputed Kashrus agency with supervision of slaughtering, such as the CRC, the Star-K and others, recognized that only one animal on the video was conscious.

3. ASI has been in the food supervision / auditing business for 70 years, spanning three generations in the same family. They now provide "computerized e-mail reports, instant on-line audit results, [and] in-plant microbiological testing and training." They know exactly what they are doing.

4. I'm sure Patty Judge was very, very clear. It's sheer coincidence that the DesMoines Register got it so wrong. Maybe they were paid off by Rubashkin, right?

Shmarya, as I said, you obviously have far more free time on your hands than I do. I'm sure the readers can distinguish "the meat from the chaff" at this point.

[Shmarya]

Oh, I'm so sorry Rabbi Menken. Did I make a typo? Well, I suppose that means that my facts are wrong. If I could only type more effectively …

1. Your science is incorrect. This is because you do not understand the facomia pen and how shechita using it works. The FACT is that EVERY scientist that has commented on the PETA video to date supports PETA's contentions.

2. "An agitated animal will have more adrenaline in the system, which increases the pulse, increases the blood pressure, and diverts blood to priority areas (which is basically irrelevant, because the brain consistently receives about 20-25% of blood supply at all times). Shmarya, you don't need to go to med school to figure out that this means faster bleeding."

Dr. Grandin and other experts, along with Rabbi Belsky disagree with you.

3. "The only thing that could possibly be blocked, hanging back, is the vertebral arteries."

Nope. You are wrong. The head itself retains blood longer and the animal therefore is conscious longer. That is one reason why Israeli rabbis cited times of 20 to 30 seconds for unconsciousness, while Dr. Rosen and Shechita UK, etc., cited much faster times. Israel does upside-down shechita. The UK does standing.

4. Again, as I documented earlier, Patty Judge's office was absolutely clear – she did NOT change her mind. Further, her job is primarily one of an Ag booster, not a regulator. Ag is Iowa's #1 business. Yet her reaction on seeing the PETA video was loud and clear – the shechita was NOT humane. To argue as you and R. Shafran, etc., do, that because she saw three animals properly shechted in a controlled slaughter while on a personal guided tour of AgriProcessors led by Sholom M. Rubashkin is foolish.

5. ASI only recently began doing Animal Welfare Audits. Every source I've spoken to in the Food Science community made it clear that ASI is not highly regarded in this area. Further, their audit was of a short duration and was not unannounced. That is one reason why Albertson's and Safeway are now DEMANDING that Rubashkin submit to unannounced surprise audits on an ongoing basis from a company of their – not Rubashkin's – choosing.

As for my readers distinguishing "the meat from the chaff," I'm sure they are able to apply their skills of discernment to Torah.org and Agudath Israel as well.

[Yaakov Menken]

Temple Grandin is indeed an expert at the humane care of animals. See her comments at http://www.grandin.com/ritual/qa.cattle.insensibility.html . She specifically does not make Shmarya's assertion that upright shechita leads to faster death. Regarding "The rotating box at Agriprocessors", she says that it "is probably more stressful than the best upright box, but it is much better than shackling and hoisting" -- hardly an indictment. Her concern with the rotating box is limited to this as one of the possible "restraining methods that the method used to hold the animal in position;" nowhere in her discussion of the time to unconsciousness or the handling methods does she so much as hint that either method results in faster loss.

She -- like the experts I consulted originally -- states that the throat pull should not be done seconds after shechita. She says "Most cattle will become unconscious and insensible within 5 to 10 seconds after a biologically effective cut. However, sensibility can last for over a minute in a small percentage of cattle." This completely reconciles Dr. Rosen with the Israeli rabbinate, with no reference to the animal's position.

ASI performs animal welfare audits week-in, week-out, and has been doing so for years. Strange that ASI would only "recently" start Animal Welfare Audits, yet manage to jump to the top of the heap so quickly on a Google search.

Strange that you would mention Safeway, since they were a recent target of a PETA boycott. Now that they've been forced to modify their policies to be animal-friendly (unlike any other grocery chain), they are marketing themselves as animal-friendly... and trying to mollify PETA at every turn, given that PETA still has http://www.shameway.com on-line.

Now this time, when I say I'm done, I mean it. This is silly. Give it up, Shmarya, you're just digging deeper, and every time you post more of your "facts" are shown to be fiction.

[Shmarya]

1. I interviewed Dr. Grandin twice. I stand by what I wrote, including the FACT that Rabbi Belsky also believes that bleed-out is faster standing.

2. Dr. Grandin was horrified by what she saw on the PETA video and has been very clear about that.

3. She rates shackling and hoisting as 1 (on a scale of 1 to 10 with being the best and 1 the worst), PROPERLY DONE upside-down shechita in a PROPERLY MAINTAINED and OPERATED Facomia pen as a 4 or 5 and standing in a properly operated ASPC pen as a 10.

4. As for ASI, all I can tell you is what I told you before: They are not taken seriously in the Food Science community or the Animal Welfare community and their audit at Rubashkin was not unannounced and was of a very limited scope.

5. You have not shown anything that I have written to be false.

[Michael O'brian]

Your site is filled with disgusting antisemiticsm reminiscent of Der Strumer in Nazi Germany.