New Zealand Jews, Government Reach Agreement On Ritual Chicken Slaughter

In an 11th hour settlement, shechita (kosher slaughter) of poultry will continue after agreement was reached  between the New Zealand Jewish community’s lawyers and the country’s Minister of Agriculture.

 

Kosher chicken back on Kiwi menu
DALIA SABLE • Australian Jewish News

IN an 11th hour settlement, shechita (kosher slaughter) of poultry will continue in New Zealand, after agreement was reached on Friday afternoon between the New Zealand Jewish community’s lawyers and the country’s Minister of Agriculture.

Negotiations are continuing over the shechita of lamb, but until these negotiations are completed, or the matter is settled in court, the interim relief orders granted in August, enabling shechita of lamb, will continue.

The High Court trial between the community and Agriculture Minister David Carter, due to begin on Monday has been adjourned after the agreement was made.

A statement from the heads of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, the Wellington Jewish Community Centre and the New Zealand Jewish Council thanked the Jewish community in New Zealand and overseas for their support and donations towards legal costs.

“Unfortunately there is still a significant shortfall, and community members are asked to ‘dig deep’ to help meet the costs of our campaign to save shechita in New Zealand,” the statement said.

In June this year, representatives from the New Zealand community met with Prime Minister John Key to air their concerns regarding new guidelines for the slaughter of meat imposed by David Carter and his ministry, despite advice from the the country’s National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to grant a dispensation.

While Prime Minister Key told the community at a private meeting that he “want[s] the Jewish community to be strong and vibrant in New Zealand”, he failed to issue a response on the issue, forcing the community to prepare their legal case.

A provisional exemption was granted by the court in August until the matter was resolved.

Comments

[Adam Neira]

Good to see that the Land of the Long White Cloud is still friendly to orthodox Jewish concerns.

[jayman]

This all sounds very strange. If one searches on google, there are numerous articles on hunting in New Zealand. Wikipedia has an entire article about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_in_New_Zealand

It says about duck hunting for example; "Laws also state that ducks must be shot with a shotgun while on the wing (flying). Although a mercy shot on the ground or water is an ethical responsibility of the hunter should a bird be injured during the initial shooting."

"Pigs
They are widespread throughout New Zealand and commonly are hunted using dogs"

If the issue of ritual slaughter involves cruelty to animals, then why in the world are hunters in New Zealand allowed to painfully kill other animals? This entire debate wreaks of hypocrisy and antisemitism.

[Maverick]

Good point Jayman about the comparison.

Possible reasons:

1) These are not institutional or commercial actions.
2) Pigs are considered pests, so the government lets them be hunted.
3) This is the only way to hunt. There are proposed ways to make the practice of Schita better, but those have been repulsed (ex. Anesthesia), so the government compares what they are to what they could be, or is trying to get these reforms adopted.
4) There are different bodies of the government responsible for hunting and for slaughter, and they have different regulations and methods.

Or you could scream ANTI-SEMITES about a country that has no other indications of it and one of whose recent heads of state was Jewish. Its possible Anti-Semitism is a factor, but is very unlikely.

[jayman]

I see what your saying Maverick, and perhaps antisemitism isn't a factor here.

But I've wondered why it is that whenever shechita has been attacked in various countries, the Jewish representatives havent thought to compare it to hunting laws in their country.

And even given your points above, I still dont see how a government can justify hunting and killing a bunch of animals in an extremely painful way, but kosher slaughter which is quick and requires much less pain is banned.

[Maverick]

It would be effective to demand that if the government reform shechita it also reform hunting practices. Either much better compromises could be reached, or the barbaric practice of hunting would be made less so (or both).

I am not sure why this hasn't been used, perhaps because anti-hunting groups would get involved in the anti-shechita movement if such a link was made.

It isn't particularly justifiable to allow these hunting practices, but there would be a political firestorm if someone tried to ban them. Ultimately the politicians are (hopefully) trying to pick the battles they can win so at least something can be accomplished.

[Barry]

Although it is illogical, perhaps the reason why many feel that farm animals should have a better death than wild animals is as compensation for the fact that they have no chance of escaping death whereas wild animals frequently escaped their hunters efforts.
Also in countries with large Jewish or Muslim communities the number of farm animals killed is huge and exceeds those hunted by many times. Apparently New Zealand shechita accounts for just 300 sheep a year so it is hardly an issue compared to the number killed in the US.
I've notice on VIN that some commentators are seeking to link the death of those NZ miners with banning shechita

[Ann]

B'H..
We were okayed for immigration to NZ!

[Aussie]

About time this blog picked up on this story....
NZ Jewish community have struggled through this hard time with little to no help from their brothers in other countries where kosher meat is taken for granted....

Even paypal put the boots in by freezing the account they were using to collect donations to help with legal fees...

Hopefully soon our brothers in kiwi-land(NZ) with also be able to eat lamb and beef without the expense of shipping it in from Australia...

[Shmarya]

Even paypal put the boots in by freezing the account they were using to collect donations to help with legal fees...

Please.

PayPal has a rule. You can't use PayPal to take donations unless you are a US-based 501(c)(3) or (c)(4) charity.

The NZ Jewish community violated that rule and was banned by PayPal as a result.

[catcher50]

I'm either sensitive enough or paranoid enough to see anti-Semitism any place it rears it's ugly head. I have no doubt that there is a reasonable amount of anti-Semitism in New Zealand (as there is in the US, England, the Scandinavian countries, etc.), but I'm convinced that this is really a matter of the PC police going overboard.

I've read some interesting thoughts about how more urbanized societies can best deal with this situation. It is to make sure that many of those who think that meat is produced in factories and naturally appears in plastic wrapped containers be exposed to what a herd of cows (or worse a flock of Turkeys) looks, acts and smells like.

What is important is that those who are concerned that Jews be allowed to legitimately practice their faith, pick what battles are required to be fought and how much capital is to be expended fighting them.