The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-17 00:00:00

Mr. Bodkin appeared for the complainant, and Mr.
Ballantine for the nominal defendants—Yamkoff Cohen
and Thomas Reynolds.
Mr. Bodkin said the complaint was laid under an act
passed in 1849, for the more effectual prevention of
cruelty to animals, by the second section of which it was
provided that if any person cruelly ill-treated er tor-
tured, or caused to be tortured or illused, any animal,
every such offender for every such offence should forfeit
a penalty of 51., and by the interpretation clause animal
included "oz, bullock," &c. The question raised to-day
involved principles and feelings of the highest impor-
tance to a large and respectable class of the
community, and required patient and calm consider-
ation on the part of his lordship. These proceed-
ings had not been instituted from any personal or pecu-
niary motives, hut by the members of the society he
represented, who desired to see the humane provisions
of the act carried out. Whatever the result might be
no one could doubt but that it was a proper matter to
be calmly and dispassionately investigated, the mode
adopted by the Jewish community for slaughtering
cattle intended for their consumption. All must be
aware without study or research that the Jewish com-
munity have peculiar customs with respect to the
slaughtering of cattle intended for the subsistence
of their people, and from what he knew of the
educated class of that community (some of whom he saw
present) that no intentional cruelty or any indifference
to what amounted to cruelty would receive their sanction,
one of the chief characteristics of whom was kindness of
heart and disposition, and whom, if the abuses com-
plained of were shown to exist, none would be more for-
ward to promote improvement calculated to serve the
cause of humanity than those who were now affected by
these proceedin;s. So far as he could understand the
Jewish custom, the object of their present mode of
slaughtering the cattle, was to arrive at two points con-
sidered essential bythem—first, that the animal should be a
living animal when operatedon, and in the next that all the
blood of the animal should be completely extracted from
it before it was fit for food. The society was of opinion
that if the Jews adopted the modern system of slaughter-
ing cattle—that of knocking them on the head—the
animal would not, in fact, be deprived of life, but ani-
mation would only be suspended, which would render
the animal, during the remainder of the operation, per-
fectly free from that pain .and agony which it now ne-
cessarily underwent, and, by cutting it nearer the heart,
death would ensue in two or three minutes. Jewish
writers agreed that any amount of life in. the animal at
the time of slaughtering was sufficient to meet the re-
quirements of the Jewish community—even the move-
ment of the tail—and therefore, by the modern mode,
' there would be a living animal to be operated on,

and the means of extracting the whole of the blood.
If his Worship, after hearing the evidence, should be of
opinion, that by the Jewish mode of slaughtering,
cruelty was inflicted on the animal, but excusable in
deference to the religious rites of the Jews, and that by
slaughtering a bullock with a poleaxe would be a viola-
tion of one of the Jewish rites, then it would be neces-
sary to have the question decided by the highest tri-
bunals. The Jews might claim the highest antiquity
fur what they did, but he need not say that to go back
to olden times as the only justification for this proceed-
ing was hardly feasible in the present day, but that
the march of civilisation that had ;emancipated the

Jews from their former grievances should induce
them to have recourse to the modern improve-
met.ti in physiological science, and pay a defer-
ence to the powers that be, and instead of resisting
should adopt such improvements as modern science pre-

sented to them. He called the following evidence.
Edward Dixon, police-constable of the D division,
deposed going with Seaman, one of the officers of the
society, to a slaughter-house in High-street, Aldgate,
where he saw Reynolds and Cohen. He saw three bul-
locks slaughtered, two without and one with a pole-axe;
the hind legs were fastened with a chain, and the fore
legs with a rope. It was then thrown down, and two

men knelt on it to keep it down. A ring was placed
into its mouth, into which was put a bent iron rod by
which the throat was stretched, the bar being brought
by the men back over the head on the eye to get a
purchase. The animal was held in that position two
minutes, the animal appearing to suffer much pain.
Then Cohen shaved off a little hair from the throat, and
cut the throat near the jaw, nearly severing the head.
His impression was the animals suffered much more pain
by this mode of slaughtering than by the use of a pole-

axe, judging from the protrusion of the tongue and the
movements of the body. One of the a.uimals was nine

minutes in dying.
The witness was cross-examined by Mr. Ballantine as
to the Christian mode of slaughtering, in contrast with
the Jewish mode. A bullock, by the ordinary mode of
slaughtering, had one leg hobbled. It was then struck
in the head with a pole-axe ;on which a boy put a cane
into the hole and stirred the brains, when the animal
died almost immediately. The cane "twiddled" about.
in the brain no doubt caused pain, but he thought not
so much as that by the Jewish mode.
Mr. Seaman, the society's officer, deposed that the
bullock pole-axed, alluded to by the last witness, was
the largest of the three, and died quickest. He cor-
roborated the policeman's evidence as to the suffering of
the animal by the Jewish method, and gave it as his
opinion that a bullock died quicker by the pole-axe and
cane.

Edward Morgan, a slaughterman, employed in the
slaughter-house in question, was present with the
former witnesses. Tkey had described the process
pretty accurately. By the ordinary mode a bullock was
2 or 3 minutes dying, by the Jewish 9 or 10 minutes.
By Mr. Ballantine—He had frequently had to strike
a bullock more than once with a pole-axe.
Mr. Ballantine—How did the ox seem to like it ?
Witness—He must put up with it I suppose.
(Laughter.) He had seen a bullock rise after being
knocked down and its throat cut.
B. Morgan and James Anderson gave similar testi-
mony.
Dr. Lloyd, senior, physician of the Royal Dispensary,
and late lecturer on Pathology at Guy's Hospital, was
next examined. He deposed that he went to the slaughter
house in question on the Bth Oct., and saw five bullocks
slaughtered by the Jewish mode, four died in 6,1 minutes,
but in each case there was a second incision by the man
standing by. The other took 9 minutes. He had since
seen a bullock killed by the Jewish mode in
minutes without the second incision. The regular cutter
remonstrated with the man for giving the second cut.
Death was instantaneous after pole-axing a bullock, by
the introduction of the cane. The Jewish mode was by
no means the most humane mode of killing cattle.
and
ttl
the
By
the cutting, the vertebrated arteries were uncut,
animal being conscious the flow of blood to the brain
caused pain. The vein was cut a second time, alluded
to above, from the blood coagulating.
By Mr. Ballantine.--Convulsions were caused -by
hcemorrhage. Death by bleeding was formerly considered
the easiest mode of dying ; that was by opening a vein.
Dr. Pavey, physician, lecturer at Guy's Hospital, had
seen several bullocks, slaughtered by the Jewish mode.
After the animal had been thrown down, the neck dis-
tended, and the incision made, it was thrown into vio-
lent convulsions whilst the blocZ was rapidly issuing.
After that there apppeared to be a collapse or syncope,
which lasted a minute or a minute and a half, the flow
of blood being much diminished. After that there was
another flow and violent convulsions, during' which the
animal appeared to attempt to recover sensibility ; the
average time occupied in killing by this method was GI
minutes. He had seen it in minutes, and on one
occa-
sion' it occupied 9 minutes. He considered the use of
the pale-axe the best mode of killing, and he questioned
if the animal felt the cane on the brain. Separating the
spinal cord with a knife, as in Paris, or the use of the
pole-axe, were the best modes of killing cattle.
Mr. Alfred Poland, lecturer at Guy's Hospital on