ECJ Support of Kosher Ban — A Jewish Vegan’s Opinion
By: Sasha Cohen Ioannides
Tags: Jewish, Kosher, European Union

The EU has approved Belgium’s kosher/halal slaughter ban in the name of animal welfare. I do not believe the intent of the law has anything to do with welfare and is focused more on the dislike of differences that cultures hold.

I do not eat meat and have not eaten meat for many years. I have previously worked on a small scale farm with both cattle and chickens and I deeply care about animals and their welfare. While I personally do not believe that eating meat is my most ethical or sustainable option, I welcome everyone to do their own research on this and read “The Omnivores Dilemma”.

The chickens I used to farm.

I come to question if the EU actually cares about animal welfare or are just being xenophobic for the following reasons:

• Hunting is still allowed without stunning

• Foie Gras is still legal which involves force-feeding birds in cages

• Factory farmed veal is still legal which involves placing calves in small cages

• Waterbath stunning is still legal which does not guarantee a reliable stunning method and places chickens in uncomfortable positions

• Beak and toe clipping is legal which places animals in much pain for most of their lives

• Kosher slaughter was banned for “animal welfare” in 1933 by Adolf Hitler

One big study on this kosher slaughter was done in 2004 by PETA, where the kosher slaughter was studied in an industrial factory. I see red flags already here. We all know ALL industrial factories are inhumane for animals and that PETA holds a bias against all killing of animals. However, in the case of this study both Kosher law and the federal law were being violated.

The laws of Shechita (kosher slaughter) are silent as to the appropriate manner of restraining an animal, but we can usually see shackle-hoist and rotating pen methods. The shackle-hoist method has been banned by the Orthodox Union. I definitely think that we should implement more restrictions on restraint. I do not think these are necessarily humane, but these are also not being done at every facility. However, as pointed above, many industrial practices for slaughter are also terrible.

Learning to slaughter an animal according to Shechita takes a long period of time as the law requires the cut to be completely smooth with an incredibly sharp knife. There is never to be hacking involved and the law requires this to be as painless as possible.

There have been studies on the distress animals go through during kosher slaughter. With chickens, it was ultimately discovered that with their behavioral responses to neck cutting, the time to bleed out, and the avoidance of the need to shackle live birds, the Shechita procedure is acceptable. Each animal is individually handled, though, and have a shorter time to death from the start of the process to the end.

The problem with Kosher slaughter currently is ultimately not the actual slaughter, but the preslaughter handling. There are ways to create laws that address this problem, but the Belgian government chose instead to make communities no longer feel welcome where they live.

While sharing these thoughts, I also think it is really important to think about where our food comes from. Many of the people that are fighting to ban kosher slaughter are likely also eating factory meat, where their animals are treated absolutely abhorrently.

They don’t care about doing their research on religious practices for Jews and Muslims. They see us as ritualistic and outdated, while their 21st-century food is produced in a “scalable” way with no care about the treatment of the animals prior to their death. The law does not come with the intent for animal welfare, but for the desire to other people of different cultural backgrounds.