Tzemach Atlas has a new post on tzaar baalei hayyim (causing suffering to animals) after shechita. He consulted with two different Halakhic authorities. What he found boils down to the following:
- Animals do feel pain for a time after shechita because death is not instantaneous.
- Meat cut from an animal immediately after shechita can not be eaten until the animal stops moving and has died. (Hullin 33a)
- Rabbis who say there is no tzaar baalei hayyim after shechita are mistaken. (He brings proof.)
- Source for the second-cut may be from the High Priest's actions in the Jerusalem Temple on Yom Kippur.
- The HP would slaughter a sheep cutting most but not all of the two tubes (trachea and esophagus) and would immediately collect the blood and offer it on the altar. (Yoma 31b)
- The sheep was handed to a priest of lesser status who finished the shechita as the HP was offering the blood.
- This happened only because the HP also had a Biblical obligation to collect and sprinkle the blood. This meant that the HP had two concurrent Biblical obligations.
- Today, cutting of the carotid arteries to finish shechita "might" fit into this category.
- It is unclear how tearing of the trachea could fit into this category.
- We have been informed that good shochtim cut both carotid arteries in the same cut as the tubes.
Tzemach hopes to have more on this soon, and urges everyone to check back for updates and/or corrections that may be made to this post.
Read his entire post here.