Rabbinute: Rubashkin Shechita Not Acceptible

Cow trying to walk after shechita at AgriProcessors/Rubashkin in Postville, Iowa (PETA)

The rabbinate told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that it would not consider as kosher cows that appear in an undercover video of ritual slaughtering at the AgriProcessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa.…

The footage shows cows in the Iowa slaughterhouse slamming their heads on the floor, staggering and even standing shakily minutes after their throats were cut and their trachea and esophagus ripped out. PETA states on its Internet site that, in most cases, kosher slaughter is supposed to be kinder and quicker than standard slaughter methods.…

"Technically, the shehita is kosher, but some of the things they do deviate from the rabbinate's guidelines," said Rabbi Ezra Raful, head of the rabbinate's international shehita supervision department, who watched the PETA video together with the Post.

"You see there, it looks like he ripped out the trachea and esophagus. We do not allow the animal to be touched after the shehita until the main part of the bleeding stops.

"That means no stunning like they do in Australia, and no attempts to speed the bleeding like what they are trying to do here."

Raful, who has supervised kosher slaughterhouses all over the world, including at AgriProcessors, said he has never seen the ripped throat practice before.…

"Look," noted Raful, "he did not cut one of the jugular veins, so blood is still flowing. That's another reason for not accepting that shehita. It looks as though the animal wasn't slaughtered properly."

Raful said it normally takes 30 seconds to a minute for the cow to lose consciousness if shehita is done properly.…

Read it all here.

 

 

Comments

[Tzemach Atlas]

Shmarya, your reporing on this is very good!