Ritual slaughter is inhumane

Abstract

In reaction to publishing the article by P.T. Skoczykłoda (Zoophilologica nr 2 (10)/2022) who uses religious sources to demonstrate that Jewish ritual slaughter or shechita does not harm animals more than the standard slaughter, and portrays this stance as being compatible with science, the shechita is here compared to the standard slaughter in the light of current knowledge. All credible results of physiological experiments and systematic studies of the real proces in the slughter­-houses leave no doubt that the correct standard slaughter starting with stunning causes much less suffering than any, even perfect cut without stunning which leaves an animal conscious with excruiciating pain until the death by exsanguination. Several independent quantitative studies of the latter demonstrated, that stunning preceding the cut does not affect either the rate or the final effect of exsanguination, which runs contrary to the religious tales, and calls into question the very religious sense of ritual slaughter. Systematic observations in slaughterhouses show that both standard slaughter and shechita are prone to malfunction that affects substantial numbers of animals and cause a great amount of additional pain except that faulty stunning shots should and usually are corrected by a second shot whereas in shechita animals are left to die of exsanguination whatever the cause of their prolonged agony (usually 20–80 seconds but sometimes much longer). In addition, the neck cut of a fully conscious animal necessaitates complete restraint – whereas in a modern slaughterhouse the cow is compressed in a slaughter box, in the traditional shechita the cow had the muzzle shackled to the ground while being suspended and hoisted by one hind leg, all of which is a torture made of pain and panic. This infamous, broadly used shackle-and-hoist technique, only recently banned in the USA and Isreal under the public pressure, contradicts the claim that shechita is meant to alleviate animal suffering.