Israel has yet another horrific kosher slaughter scandal, this one
involving Soglowek – the company that once considered buying
Agriprocessors. Birds are kept in rusted, bent and damaged cages causing many to trap
wings, legs and even heads in the cages' bars, where they sit trapped,
bleeding and suffering for hours. Birds are also dumped out of these cages from a high elevation causing further trauma to the birds – which appear to have been sold as kosher.
Soglowek abuse
New Horrific Animal Abuse At Rubashkin-Linked Israeli Kosher Slaughterhouse Shocks Israel
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Israel has yet another horrific kosher slaughter scandal, this one involving Soglowek – the company that once considered buying Agriprocessors but chose not to do so when it could not make sense of Agriprocessors' books. Its principal owner, Eli Soglowek, now claims he didn't buy Agriprocessors because the US Government scared him off – a claim made years after the fact in support of ex-Agriprocessors VP Sholom Rubashkin's latest attempt to get out of prison.
According to a report in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, Israel's Channel 10 reported last night that chickens and turkeys at a Soglowek slaughterhouse in Israel, the company's home base, are horrifically mistreated.
Birds are kept in rusted, bent and damaged cages causing many to trap wings, legs and even heads in the cages' bars, where they sit trapped, bleeding and suffering for hours.
Birds are also dumped out of these cages from a high elevation causing further trauma to the birds.
These traumatized birds appear to be sold as kosher.
The abuses at Soglowek were widespread and apparently of long duration. Even so, the government and the country's haredi-controlled chief rabbinate, which supervises the production through the local chief rabbinate, did not report the problems or try to fix them.
Soglowek apologized for the mistreatment and says it will immediately fix the problems.
But two NGOs that helped facilitate Channel 10's investigation, Let the Animals Live and Anonymous, have asked the government to close Soglowek immediately. They have also filed a criminal complaint against Soglowek's management with Israel Police.
Israel's Knesset plans on discussing the abuses at Soglowek, as well.
The animal abuse at Soglowek pales in scope and in horror to the abuse that took place at Agriprocessors, at the time the largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse in the world, where live cattle had their throats ripped out with meat hooks as rabbis stood by and did nothing to stop it.
USDA Inspectors who tried to report the abuse were hampered by special modifications made to Humane Slaughter Law by the Bush Administration at the request of haredi and Centrist Orthodox rabbis and by leading kosher supervisors. They were also hamstrung by the Bush Administration's failure – and often its open refusal – to enforce the law.
Videotape of Agriprocessors abuses shocked the country. Leading animal welfare advocates and large animal biologists were shocked and horrified by what they saw with some calling the abuses the worst in the modern history of the US.
[Hat Tip: YBM.]