Poorly Designed Head Restraint?

Tzemach Atlas quotes Rabbi Yudel Shain of the Kosher Consumers Union on Rubashkin's Facomia upside-down slaughter pen:

Due to the metal head restrainer design, the Shoichet is afraid that his "chalef" (ritual knife) will hit the metal frame and nick his "chalef" [this would invalidate the shechita] he does not go deep and the v'iridin (veins) aren't severed.

Comments

[Yudel Shain]

We must only tweak the weinberg pen to improve the minor problems, which currently cause major problems.

But we should not condemn the "shechita munachas" because of some required corrections.

Yudel Shain

[Camp Runamok]

> ...the Shoichet is afraid that his "chalef" (ritual
> knife) will hit the metal frame and nick his "chalef"

Isn't the greater concern that the chalaf will hit the neck bone? That would go a longer way toward explaining the shallow shechita we observed, I would think.

[Dovid Shatz]

Shallow Shechitah? The blood sprays like a fire hydrant and there is no halachic requirement to get all the vreidim. Between the kana, veshet and Jugular,the animal is shechted one hundred percent kosher l'mehadrin. One of the major problems with the PETA video is that most Americans reference point to death is TV and Movies. In the movies the good guy fires a single shot to the bad guys chest and the bad guy clutches his chest and falls down with a mere thud. Death is fast clean and neat. But that is not reality. I've shechted a calm 200 pound calf. We rolled it over on it's back, the shochet did his job and we released the animal. The animal sat there (head upright) for 30-60 before it started to move. It had no idea what had just happened, and it calmly sat and bled before it started to move. The fact that Peta attaches human characteristics (The terrified cow has probably never felt so helpless.. it staggers in agony while fully conscious) and asks their experts for opinion does not necessarily make it so. Yes, when I shecht a 1000 pound cow, I want it to be helpless. I don't want it to kick me in the head and kill me. (PETA would no doubt justify it as self defense) You are going to see a serious increase in human injuries as a worker tries to get get close enought to shoot a bolt into the head of a flailing animal dumped from the pen. please keep in mind we are discussing a slaughter house, not a hospice program for animals. Should we lay the shechted animal on a thick mattress and measure heartbeat until it departs? Light yahrzeit candles? Say kaddish? The animal moves, so what? The animal can be completely insensate and still be conscious. To say that Temple Grandin's ASPCA pen is more humane than the way Torosanu hakadodha has mandated shechita for 3300 years is heresy. There is nothing wrong happening in the video. My favorite parts are: (quoted here from PETA's complaint filed 11/29/04, the same date they wrote Rubashkin, the OU and KAJ with "suggested changes" In which Lori E. Kettler states that all the rabbanim and shochtim, and supervising agencies are in violation of Jewish law and federal guidelines and she knows better.) http://www.goveg.com/feat/agriprocessors/pdfs/Muranopdf.pdf
1) "cattle can be heard vocalizing in distress after the cut is made",
2)"The fully conscious animal, who is crying out, is dumped on the floor and can be seen writhing and kicking his legs in an attempt to right himself. The animal vocalizes throughout the ordeal...",
3)"so a second steer is dumped to the floor and bellows as he is shackled and swund to the bleed rail.",
4)"The animal bellows as he is shackled and hoisted.",
5)"The first steer bellows as he hits the cement floor after release from the facoima pen."
6)"The second steer is clearly conscious after he is released from the facoima pen, as he can be heard bellowing as he attempts to stand."
I suggest you visit a shlachthouse and try to get a cow to bellow after it windpipe has been cut and it's trachea ripped out. The animal CANNOT PHYSICALLY VOCALIZE, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! The Peta video is either doctored or there are other animals making noise in the background, but at any rate the complaint is incorrect. PETA has also been fined for fabricating video tape in the past: http://wave.prohosting.com/antiar/Berosini.html
and why would any Jew want to side with an organization that advocates the murder of medical researchers to save "non-human lives". http://brianoconnor.typepad.com/animal_crackers/files/01_track_01.mp3
and the vanadlism and destruction of personal property belonging to people that diagree with them:
http://www.animalscam.com/downloads/peta_friedrich.wav