In Response To Lawsuits, Leading Glatt Kosher Meat Producer Says Kosher Slaughter Causes “Great Suffering”

"Whereas the purchasers of other consumer goods could believe their production does not entail causing suffering and harm to the workers who participate in it, the consumer of meat products cannot make a similar assumption about the animals from whose flesh they are produced, since slaughtering by its very nature causes the animals great suffering.”

An electric cattle prod in use at Tnuva's Adom Adom slaughterhouse in Beit She'an, 12-2013

In Response To Lawsuits, Leading Glatt Kosher Meat Producer Says Kosher Slaughter Causes “Great Suffering”
Shmarya Rosenberg  FailedMessiah.com

In response to two petitions to file class action suits against it, both of which were heard today in the Jerusalem District Court, Tnuva Food Industries admitted that kosher slaughter, “causes the animals great suffering,” Ha’aretz reported.

"Whereas the purchasers of other consumer goods could believe their production does not entail causing suffering and harm to the workers who participate in it, the consumer of meat products cannot make a similar assumption about the animals from whose flesh they are produced, since slaughtering by its very nature causes the animals great suffering,” Tnuva told the court.

In separate petitions, Ruth Kolian and Perach Amzaleg both argue that Tnuva lied to kosher consumers by creating the false impression of adherence to strict food safety and kosher regulations and by the company’s own promises that animals were treated humanely, while in reality the production of meat at Tnuva’s Beit She'an slaughterhouse was abysmal and still involves great suffering for the animals.

In December 2012, Israel’s Channel 2 T.V.’s Kolbotek program broadcast an exposé documenting horrific treatment at the glatt kosher slaughterhouse, billed as the premier glatt kosher slaughterhouse in Israel. Undercover video showed workers are seen hitting calves and lambs with sticks and giving them electric shocks, holding animals by one leg and dragging them with a forklift, and throwing lambs into the air immediately after the slaughter cut was made by the shochet and hanging them upside down even though they were still alive and conscious.

Amzaleg is wants Tnuva to pay damages of NIS 200 million for her group of plaintiffs, includes anyone who purchased Tnuva’s Adom Adom brand products and suffered emotional distress after seeing the Kolbotek exposé.

Kolian wants less – NIS 100 million in damages - NIS 500 for every one of the estimated 200,000 Adom Adom consumers.

Both Amazaleg and Kilian each say they will donate their own compensation if they win to animal welfare organizations.

Aviad Amzaleg, Perach Amzaleg’s husband, is representing her in the suit.

He reportedly said that Tnuva "did not act in good faith when it depicted itself as abiding by hygiene and quality regulations. The investigative report proved that Tnuva’s advertisements are blatantly untrue. Not only is the slaughter process at the plant not of high quality, it is also not under the supervision of inspection agencies and is in violation of regulations.”

Kolian is haredi. Before filing the petition to sue, she got rulings from from Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Mahfoud and from the shechita (slaughter) board of Badatz Yerushalayim,the kosher supervision agency and rabbinic court of the anti-Zionist haredi umbrella organization Eda Haredit, that unnecessary cruelty to animals makes their meat unkosher.

“We have a holy Torah, and it explicitly prohibits animal cruelty,” Kolian reportedly said.

Tnuva argues that all slaughter is cruel and looks cruel, and that seeing even humane kosher slaughter would horrify anyone.

“There is no reason to assume the claimed damage of ‘profound shock, anger, repugnance and sadness’ would not have been caused to consumers even if what had been documented and broadcast had been the usual, violent procedure in accordance with the regulations concerning the animals at the time of their slaughter, the legality of which is not in dispute."

Tnuva’s court filing describes the legal glatt kosher slaughter process in detail.

“It suffices to mention that in order to slaughter the animals, when they are fully conscious and sometimes die of fright, they are put into a facility called the holding chamber, in which arms that seize them press hard on their heads and bodies. Then, together with the chamber they are turned 180 degrees and as they are held their neck are slit and they bleed until they lose consciousness. It is indisputable that broadcast of a film documenting these actions ‘proper under the regulations’ would horrify most meat-eating consumers, even though this is absolutely legal behavior.”

The process described uses the notorious rotating pen made infamous by Agriprocessors. It is only used in areas where some haredi rabbis give kosher supervision and the laws of the particular country allow it. In most cases outside Israel, it is used because Israel’s haredi chief rabbis demand it and the meat from the cattle being slaughter will be exported to Israel.

Tnuva also rejected assertions that it should have informed consumers about how its meat products are really made, claiming its customers do not want to be exposed to the truth.

"Is information provided to consumers, for example, about the processes involved in manufacturing sneakers, or breakfast cereals, or toilet paper? How much more so in the case of meat products: This is exactly the sort of information consumers want to be concealed from them, so as to enable them to enjoy the product while repressing the thought that their enjoyment entails causing suffering to a living creature,” Tnuva's response reportedly reads.

Tnuva also asserted that kosher slaughter violates international humane slaughter standards.

"All the instructions of the OIE-World Organization for Animal Health concerning the stun methods that can be used on animals prior to slaughter to reduce their suffering in the slaughter process … are incompatible with the Jewish kashrut laws requiring the animal to be fully conscious at the time of slaughter and which Tnuva observes so that the factory's products can be sold as kosher," Tnuva wrote.

"The incident[s] shown on Channel 2] occurred a number of months ago. Adom Adom condemned the actions and took immediate and significant steps in full coordination with the regulators in Israel and…regrets the incident and is acting to ensure the quality of its products,” the company told Ha’aretz.

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Comments

[Barry]

I think Tnuva's argument is even more profound. Tnuva seem to be arguing that Kosher Slaughter is by its very nature inhumane and that this inhumanity means that only people who are cruel and uncaring are prepared to work in their slaughterhouses.

In other words the 'unnecessary suffering' caused by slaughtermen's use of sticks and electric pods in handling cattle (which the petitioners object to) is the direct consequence of having to be morally corrupt to not be offended by the 'necessary suffering' of shechita of fully concious animals(which the petitioners approve).

Tnuva's management is stating that we are not prepared to play along with the Hareidi myth that shechita is not cruel and inhumane and that any cruelty and inhumanity exhibited by our slaughtermen has nothing to do with how the plant is forced to operate by Rabbis.

In Europe, it is often slaughterhouse workers who object most strongly to shechita. In Sweden, these workers went on strike to protest against shechita.

Tnuva is not a frum organization. They probably wished that animals were stunned before slaughter and international standards applied to them so they could employ a better calibre of person (like Sweden does) to work in in their slaughterhouses.

[David]

I have no problem with kosher slaughter when done in a correct manner but the frumma are almost always unconcerned about animal cruelty and really don't care for steps that may be taken to reduce suffering.

(The Real David.)

[Alter Kocker]

Time to realize that the myth of humane kosher slaughter has been exposed. The addition of methods to render the animal insensate in a short period of time has been available for decades, but adherence to outdated practice coupled with willful ignorace has lead to a situation that should be unacceptable.

[ah-pee-chorus]

+++. Tnuva seem to be arguing that Kosher Slaughter is by its very nature inhumane and that this inhumanity means that only people who are cruel and uncaring are prepared to work in their slaughterhouses. Posted by: Barry+++

barry-

i dont think so. read it again and see what you think.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

"Time to realize that the myth of humane kosher slaughter has been exposed."

I have never believed it when people said it was the most humane method of killing an animal. Mainly, because they never had any facts to back up the assertion.

Basically, as far as I'm concerned, if you don't have the data, you're just another person with an opinion.