Dr. Temple Grandin: Agriprocessors In Bottom 10% Of All Slaughterhouses

Lynda Waddington of the Iowa Independent interviewed Dr. Temple Grandin, perhaps the world's leading expert on animal behavior and humane slaughter.

Dr. Grandin called Agriprocessors' management…

…sloppy and said Agriprocessors is in the bottom 10% of all slaughterhouses.

Here is what Rabbi Menachem Genack of the OU recently said about Dr. Grandin:

Temple is really important,” Rabbi Menachem Genack, the O.U.'s head of kosher supervision, told JTA. “She's universally accepted. I think she's a very honest person. Generally, Temple is someone who is accepted as an arbiter in terms of these issues of animal welfare. She doesn't have an agenda against shechita [ritual slaughter] in any way.”

Now, here is what Dr. Grandin said about Agriprocesors:

Slaughter expert calls Agriprocessors ’sloppy’
By LYNDA WADDINGTON 9/11/08 10:51 AM

One of the nation’s leading authorities on humane livestock slaughtering told Iowa Independent in a phone interview today that the problems at Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, could be summed up in one word: “Sloppy.”

“In my experience there are three different categories of slaughter houses — kosher or otherwise,” Dr. Temple Grandin said. “About 20 percent of slaughter houses do things right nearly all the time. There is a large percentage that do things right most of the time. There’s also about 20 percent that tend to do things wrong, but will clean up their act when they are being audited.

“Within that bottom 20 percent, however, there is a very bottom 10 percent that has the most blatant problems and violations. That’s where Agriprocessors is — in that bottom 10 percent.”

Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a person with autism, has designed one-third of all livestock facilities in the U.S. with the goal of decreasing the fear and pain animals experience during the slaughter process. In North America, almost half of all cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants.

Grandin, through a recommendation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has toured the Agriprocessors facilities in both Postville and Gordon, NE. Following her tour in 2006, she gave the Postville facility her blessing, something that Agriprocessors management publicized with great earnest.

“The things that were exposed in this latest PETA video — these secondary cuts like potting a plant in the cow’s throat — that wasn’t happening when I toured the plant,” Grandin said. “I didn’t see that in the video from the tour the Rabbis took of the Postville plant earlier this summer.”

It was those differences in how management acted when they knew they were being watched and when they thought no one was looking, that led her to speak out once again against the plant and its management.

“For those who have been around agriculture, you can walk onto a farm and know if its being run well,” she explained. “You can easily see which farmers are paying attention to detail and which ones don’t seem to care. It’s that inattention to detail — that sloppy management — that has caused so many problems at Agriprocessors.”

Ritual cuts, even those performed in the rotating pens used solely in the U.S. by Agriprocessors, are not, according to Grandin, the problem.

“I have no problem with ritual slaughter when it is done correctly,” she said. “There are slaughter houses that do things right, that pay attention to the details. While the rotating pens used by Agriprocessors would not be my first choice, even those, when used correctly and maintained correctly, can meet the requirements in relation to prodding limits and vocalization.”

One of the things she’s seen in other slaughter houses that she believes should be a practice instituted at Agriprocessors, is a scoring system for the shochtim (specially trained Jewish men who perform the ritual cut).

“Management should be able to observe the cuts and note or score the shochtim’s performance,” she said. “That way you can see who has developed the best skill, who has the highest attention to detail and so forth. I’ve been in plants where, if a certain person was not scoring well, that person was told that he would be inspecting lungs or doing some other duty related to the religious tradition. That person would simply no longer be allowed to make the cut.”

That lack of leadership within Agriprocessors, and management’s continued inability or refusal to make changes that would not only benefit ritual slaughter, but the whole of plant operations, is what has led Grandin to say that all Agriprocessors facilities be equipped with cameras.

“The cameras should be installed and should be monitored by a third party, independent auditing company,” she said. “We have management at Agriprocessors that has been repeat offenders and have given us proof that they will only behave when they know they are being watched. The auditing company has be an independent third party and the results of the audits have to be posted for the public.”

Comments

[Jason]

I caught the first bit of a documentary earlier in the week about Dr. Grandin. It is amazing what she has accomplished with her autism and I can't wait to see the rest of it (which I recorded). One of the "benefits" of her autism may be that she is relatively insulated from charges of lying or having a hidden agenda. God works in mysterious ways...

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

>(specially trained Jewish men who perform the ritual cut).

Is there anyway this job can be opened up to women in Orthodox Judaism?

This is allowed.

[sage]

All the more reason why the OU needs to be prosecuted.

On the one side, it praises Dr. Temple Grandin.

On the other side, it let's Agri, against Grandins' training on how to do schechita properly with the Weinberg Pen, to do whatever the h-ll it wants to.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

A woman as schochet? Can anyone here really tell me that the OU neanderthals would allow this?
These are the same folks who rejected that macaroni and cheese because of a drawing of a female cartoon character.

It could it lead to mixed dancing at the slaughterhouse.

[steve]

Women were even allowed to shecht korbanos in the Bais Hamikdash lekatchila. See Maseches Zevachim, 31b.

[postville]

any good word for rubashkin = lie?

u cannot find any thing good ?

Sanehdrin a potachat be chova , you now the rest.

i live in postville and your blog its full of non kosher balony ( but under echsher tezedek )

i dont have to much time like u ( 28/8 )
bashing the rubashkin, chabad, chasidim,etc

but i know that we the chabad chasidim went trough a lot in russia, and the facts are that chabad its become bigger and bigger and the reform are becoming smaller and smaller, and u and your friends cannot sleep at night because of this facts

your entire stories about the housing payroll checks .treatment of the texas and somalis worker are blow out of proportion and only listing one side of the stories.

you heat so much the rubashkin & chabad that u cannos see trough your own smoke

i have to go but i will be back with more

sorry about my henglish , hinglihs i didnt learn in a nice child rape scandal free school like you

[Al]

looking for a list of orthodox and conservative rabbi's that have expressed cncer with Kashrut of Agriprocessor product.

Better yet a list of rabbanim who have stated it is not kosher ? can anyone point me in the right direction ? I want to use it to press individuals to act. Please ???

[Jason]

I'm sure we would be willing to look past your poor english if you would be willing to tell us how all these stories about Rubashkin are blown out of proportion and would tell us the other side of the story.

[Carol-Ann]

Is the Weinberg pen or Facomia pen used by Agriprocessors?

In a paper on religious slaughter, Dr. Grandin wrote that one of the problems with the rotating pen is that cattle and calves aspirate on their blood. This means the animals experience the sensation of drowning.

I believe the Humane Farming Association has proposed video camera monitoring on the kill floors of all slaugherhouses. If that's what it takes to ensure compliance with the Humane Methods of Slaugher Act, so be it.

[WoolSilkCotton]

postville | September 11, 2008 at 02:24 PM

Jason, I think that entry has to be a joke. The last sentence seemed like a dead giveaway. But who knows.

[WoolSilkCotton]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a citation against AgriProcessors for violating the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/09/update_victory.php

[critical_minyan]

Please OU put an end to this shandeh and remove your certification.
The name OU has represented kosher certification in America for 50 years. It is a shame that your name is being dragged through the mud on this, and that you do nothing to stop it.
It is blight on the rabbinate and on all religious Jews.

[sage]

Don't hold your breadth, Critical_Minyan; the OU will not pull its certification until it cannot extract any more money in fees.

[sage]

+++ In a paper on religious slaughter, Dr. Grandin wrote that one of the problems with the rotating pen is that cattle and calves aspirate on their blood. This means the animals experience the sensation of drowning. +++

If Dr. Grandin is correct, then one can make a very strong case, that the use of the rotating pen violates "tsa'ar ba'alei chayim", as the 'sensation of drowning' causes more suffering to the animal than upright slaughter in a properly designed pen, where no such thing happens.

[Carol-Ann]

The Second Cut Is The Deepest
(apologies to Sheryl Crow)

I would have bled from the throat at the start
But there's someone else who tore it apart
And he's taken just all that I have
But if you want, I'll try to bleed again
Shochet, I'll try to bleed again, but I know...

The second cut is the deepest
Shochet, I know
The second cut is the deepest
But when it comes to bein' gentle, he's cursed
When it comes to hackin' me, he's worst...

I still want you by my side
Just don't turn your back on me and hide
But I'm sure gonna give it a try
Cuz if you want, I'll try to bleed again
Shochet, I'll try to bleed again, but I know...

The second cut is the deepest
Shochet, I know
The second cut is the deepest
When it comes to being gentle, he's cursed
When it comes to hackin' me, he's the worst...

Ooohhh, the second cut is the deepest
Shochet, I know
The second cut is the deepest...

[Les]

While what was recorded by PETA in 2004 of the trachea pull was clearly unexceptable and in my opinion would be considered "dressing" before the animal was insensible and violate humane handleing requlations.
What has been video taped in the newest PETA video clearly shows that this is just a second cut to faciltate bleeding. The fact that the video only shows 2 instances of this would also indicate that this second cut is not used on every animal just when it is determined that the veins had contracted and that a need to facilitate bleeding was required to render the animal insensible quicker.
Below are portions of the guidlines as copyied from FM archives that reference this cut as acceptable humane handleing procedures.
As far as Kosher goes I am no authority on this but I am not seeing humane handleing violations.

3. Inspection program personnel are to verify that after the ritual slaughter cut and any ADDITIONAL CUT TO FACILITATE BLEEDING, no dressing procedure (e.g., head skinning, leg removal, ear removal, horn removal, opening hide patterns), is performed until the animal is insensible.
1. Inspection program personnel are not to interfere in any manner with the preparation of the animal for ritual slaughter, including the positioning of the animal, or the ritual slaughter cut and any ADDITIONAL CUT TO FACILITATE BLEEDING.

[Al]

anyone have a good list of orthodox rabbanim whom have objected and are questioning or paskining that Rubashkim meat id not kosher ? I am looking to use it to convince individuals that we need to boycott.

[sage]

In respone to Les:

Any dressing proceedure, done after the Schechita cut, prior to the animal becomming insensate or dead, renders the meat from that animal as 'NOT KOSHER', according to "The Code of Jewish Law".

Whether or not the proceedure was done according to secular law means nothing, as far as the Kashrut status of the meat is concerned.