PETA has announced that they will be protesting Rubashkin at Kosherfest (staged at the Javits Center), which starts today in NYC:
Holding signs that read, "Cruelty Is Treif: Boycott AgriProcessors," PETA members and supporters will protest against AgriProcessors, the world’s largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse, at Kosherfest on Tuesday. One person wearing a body screen TV will show graphic undercover footage of the mutilation of conscious cows who writhe in agony in pools of their own blood while other activists hand out leaflets to conferencegoers…
What’s PETA’s beef with AgriProcessors? An undercover investigation at the company’s Postville, Iowa, plant last year found that workers were shocking cows in the face with electric prods, ripping their tracheas and esophagi out of their throats while the cows were still conscious, and then dumping the animals onto a concrete floor, where they stumbled and tried to get up as blood poured from their throats.…
The Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act requires that cattle be "rendered insensible to pain" before they are shackled, hoisted, or cut but recognizes properly performed kosher slaughter as humane. According to the Orthodox Union, kosher law requires that the "trachea and esophagus of the animal are severed with a special razor-sharp, perfectly smooth blade, causing instantaneous death with no pain to the animal."
"There’s nothing ‘kosher’ about torturing animals," says PETA campaigner Benjamin Goldsmith. "If you’re buying or eating meat, you’re supporting cruelty to animals -- no matter what assurances you have been given by the government, the meat industry, or religious authorities. What we found at AgriProcessors was the worst of the worst, so we’re urging retailers and consumers to boycott AgriProcessors."
It is now 10 months since the USDA investigated AgriProcessors, and the USDA has still not released its report on the investigation. Perhaps the next PETA protest should be held in Washington, D.C.
Should consumers boycott Rubashkin as PETA suggests? Watch the videos linked below and decide for yourself.
To view footage of Rubashkin slaughter, click here (5 min. version) or here (much longer version). Selected posts on the AgriProcessors scandal are linked on the left sidebar of this page. All posts, including this one, can be read here (but do so in reverse order, starting from the bottom of the page).