PETA's Ben Goldsmith has written a response to Agudath Israel's Rabbi Avi Shafran:
No one can deny that, physiologically, “where pain is concerned, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” This does not mean that all animals are morally equivalent; it simply conveys that God designed us out of flesh, blood, bone, and he endowed us with the same capacity to feel pain. No scientist will deny this, because it’s true. And watching as they struggle to stand and flee while their windpipes hang from their bloody throats, one cannot deny that the animals at AgriProcessors felt immeasurable agony and terror as they fought against death.
Indeed, our respect for the uniquely human ability to make complex moral calculations is central to our mission at PETA. As human beings, we have an obligation to make compassionate choices when possible. As Rabbi Shafran notes, for many, this calculation leads them to vegetarianism. For all, however, it should lead to profound moral outrage at the horrific and consistent cruelty to animals perpetrated by AgriProcessors for so many years.
You can read it all after the jump.
A response to Rabbi Avi Shafran’s “The PETA Principle”
by Benjamin Goldsmith, PETAIn his recent article titled “The PETA Principle,” Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel, offers his thoughts on PETA’s campaign for improved animal welfare standards at AgriProcessors. We appreciate Rabbi Shafran’s clear concern for animal welfare and would like to address the issues he raises.
In the wake of the slaughterhouse scandal, AgriProcessors has not been able to find a single scientist, animal welfare expert, or veterinarian who is willing to defend the shoddy slaughter practices we documented.
PETA, on the other hand, has received an outpouring of support from leaders in the veterinary, animal welfare, and even meat industries, as well as in the Jewish community, who were shocked by the brazenly cruel treatment of animals that has, for years, been the norm at AgriProcessors.
Dr. Temple Grandin, consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the American Meat Institute, did not mince words after viewing the tapes, stating, “I thought it was the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen.” Dr. Lester Friedlander, a former USDA kosher slaughter inspector, echoed these sentiments, writing, “The footage captured by PETA represents the most egregious violation of the USDA Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) I have ever witnessed.”
Our investigator witnessed the slaughter of 278 cattle; one-fourth were clearly and inarguably (according to scientists) still conscious after they were dumped onto the concrete floor, roughly a minute after shechita. Contrary to what one would hope and expect, for the past ten years, there have not been USDA inspectors assigned to the kill floor of any slaughterhouses. Thus, there were none there during the five hours that our investigator was present, on six occasions over the course of about seven weeks.
Three weeks after our investigation was made public, AgriProcessors killed animals properly for Dr. Levinger. Of course, this is encouraging, but it actually validates our position, proving that AgriProcessors could have slaughtered animals humanely all along but choose not to. We guarantee that of the 150 animals Dr. Levinger watched slaughtered, not one stood up or showed the other signs of consciousness that we documented in one-fourth of animals slaughtered.
AgriProcessors’ recent willingness to invite government inspectors to its plant is like a serial killer calling the police over to his house to watch him not kill people: “See, I'm not killing anyone.” Criminals may sometimes act in accordance with the law, but that does not exonerate them for their crimes. That things are so different from what we documented shows that even AgriProcessors understands that their previous actions were unacceptable.
The animal welfare community is not asking much of AgriProcessors; we are only requesting that they adopt the widely-accepted regulatory standards for religious slaughter developed by the Food Marketing Institute. These guidelines, which can be read at GoVeg.com or FMI.org, will ensure that AgriProcessors’ handling and slaughter practices are in keeping with Judaism’s inherent and laudable commitment to kindness and respect for animals.
Striking animals in the face with electric prods, ripping their tracheas and esophagi out while they’re fully conscious, slaughtering them in a haphazard way—these things were happening at AgriProcessors, in what can only be seen as a complete denial of Judaism’s firm commitment to compassion. All Jews will surely agree that the standards that PETA, along with the Rabbinic Assembly of the Conservative movement and a swelling number of Jews from across the spectrum of Judaism, recommends will ensure that kosher slaughter is consistently quick and humane, as provided for in the Torah.
No one can deny that, physiologically, “where pain is concerned, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” This does not mean that all animals are morally equivalent; it simply conveys that God designed us out of flesh, blood, bone, and he endowed us with the same capacity to feel pain. No scientist will deny this, because it’s true. And watching as they struggle to stand and flee while their windpipes hang from their bloody throats, one cannot deny that the animals at AgriProcessors felt immeasurable agony and terror as they fought against death.
Indeed, our respect for the uniquely human ability to make complex moral calculations is central to our mission at PETA. As human beings, we have an obligation to make compassionate choices when possible. As Rabbi Shafran notes, for many, this calculation leads them to vegetarianism. For all, however, it should lead to profound moral outrage at the horrific and consistent cruelty to animals perpetrated by AgriProcessors for so many years.
In closing, please consider that PETA has never been duplicitous; you may disagree with where we stand, but we have never exaggerated and we never would exaggerate. In addition to hurting our credibility, something we would not jeopardize, we have supplied our video and all relevant documentation and factual support to three government agencies. Any exaggeration on our part would be criminal in nature and would subject us to forfeiture of our nonprofit status and thus would, most likely, lead to our demise. As the world’s largest animal rights organization, with more than 800,000 members and supporters and a 25-year history, this is not something we would ever do.
After reviewing the video documentation and reading additional expert and rabbinical testimony at GoVeg.com, readers will surely agree with Rabbi Barry Schwartz of the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Task Force on Kashrut, who said, “The suffering of these animals during slaughter is sickening. Death is neither quick nor merciful. If this is kosher, then we have a big problem.”
For information on Judaism and vegetarianism, please visit the Web site run by the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, at www.JewishVeg.com.
Benjamin Goldsmith is a campaign coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).