Prime Beef
Changes promised at Postville beef processing plant.
PETER EPHROSS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Genack, head of the O.U.'s kashrut division.
New York City
he Orthodox Union is promising to institute
changes at a kosher slaughterhouse it supervis-
es following complaints from a strident ani-
mal-rights group.
The promised changes at AgriProcessors Inc. in
Postville, Iowa, come after People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals released a video that placed
slaughter practices at the plant in question — and after
the group filed lawsuits with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture against both the plant and the Orthodox
Union, the largest kosher supervisory organization in
the world.
The changes are the latest developments in a case
that has shined a spotlight on a religious practice that
gets little public attention. O.U. officials said Dec. 7
that they will make two main changes to slaughtering
procedures at the plant, which processes meat for the
Rubashkin/Aaron's Best label.
• The plant no longer will allow slaughterers to pull
out a slaughtered animal's trachea in order to hasten
death. Instead, an artery that supplies blood to the
brain will be severed on a second cut.
• The Orthodox Union also said it would look for a
way to either kill or stun cows that are still walking
even after the initial stage of slaughtering.
The changes come after a visit to the AgriProcessors
plant Dec. 6 by several rabbis, including Menachem
A PETA spokesman said the group is pleased that the
Orthodox Union is taking steps to improve the condi-
tions for cows at the plant. Among other steps, PETA
hopes the Orthodox Union will require an upright pen
for animals while they're being killed and require that
AgriProcessors allow the animals to die after shechitah
(kosher slaughtering) rather than dumping them still
conscious from the pen.
"Certainly admitting that there's a problem is better
than denying that there's a problem," PETA's Bruce
Friedrich said. "Getting rid of that horrific situation in
which the animals were mutilated still fully conscious
is critical."
Friedrich said the complaint against the Orthodox
Union could be rescinded if the group follows a series
of recommendations made by Temple Grandin, an
associate professor of animal science at Colorado State
University, who has been highly critical of the
AgriProcessors plant.
For his part, Rabbi Genack said he is pleased with
changes at AgriProcessors, but denied PETA claims
that the plant had been violating USDA guidelines.
Officials with the USDA, which has sent inspectors to
the plant following the complaints, could not be
reached for comment.
Rabbi Genack added that "all the products that
came out of the plant were kosher. These procedures
did not affect the kashrus."
Several rabbis were quoted in the media as saying
that what they saw on a video supplied by PETA did
T
Related editorial, page 33
PETA View
Local Rabbis Approve
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
T
wo members of the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit
echoed the national debate after viewing a video last week that alleged
kosher slaughtering was not being done properly at the sole provider
of kosher meat for the Detroit area.
The rabbis — Joseph D. Krupnik, the council's kashrut director, and Shaiall
Zachariash, a member of the council's presidium — concluded that the shechi-
ta, the act of kosher slaughtering, shown in the film was done correctly.
"Everything seems to be in accordance with Jewish law," said Rabbi
Krupnik, spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Windsor. "After
death, there still is movement going on. But that always happens."
He added that statements last week on the Internet that Israel's chief rabbis
were no longer allowing the importation of meat from AgriProcessors of
Postville, Iowa, were later retracted. AgriProcessors is the sole exporter of
kosher meat to Israel.
Rabbi Zachariash, spiritual leader of Congregation Shomrey Emunah,
not adhere to Halachah (Jewish law), though some of
the criticisms later were retracted.
Rabbi Genack said he received many letters and
e-mails from members of the kosher community as a
result of the hubbub. In response to the concern, the
Orthodox Union sent a letter to synagogue rabbis last
week explaining the organization's position on the
issue, and Rabbi Genack said a second letter explaining
the changes would be sent out soon.
PETA, which is known for its aggressive tactics in
promoting its animal-rights agenda — it generated
controversy last year when it compared the meat indus-
try to the Holocaust — first raised the issue with
AgriProcessors last June after being tipped off to allega-
tions of improper procedures at the plant.
In an exchange of letters, PETA raised objec-
tions and asked that an expert on slaughter be
allowed to witness the process. When the
exchange proved unsuccessful, PETA sent an
undercover cameraman to the plant this summer
to film the slaughtering process.
Based on that footage, PETA filed a complaint with
the USDA, complaining that AgriProcessors was not
following government regulations. It sought suspension
of the plant's license and possible criminal proceedings.
PETA's letter to the USDA details what it says are vio-
lations of the 1902 Humane Methods of Livestock
Slaughter Act.
By violating halachic procedures, the letter claims,
AgriProcessors is violating the legislation, which
allows animals to be killed according to Jewish law.
PETA later filed a second complaint with the
USDA against the Orthodox Union. I 1
Southfield, is a former shochet. He said the undercover video by the People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has a political agenda.
"I know when a shochet kills an animal, the animal is going to bleed and it
is going to move around. But it is no longer alive." Rabbi Zachariash said
once the esophagus and trachea are cut "there is no life after that." The animal
can not feel the death throes.
The PETA film shows cattle standing or trying to stand after the shochet
did his work and called the slaughtering "insensitive."
Rabbi Zachariash counters that "Torah permits us to use the meat of ani-
mals and what is done to process the meat is not insensitive." He said the
film's statements about insensitivity and what is happening to "living" animals
"are a political issue, not a halachic [Jewish law] issue. As far as kosher — I
don't see any problems.
"They have an agenda — they are vegetarians — and they are against any-
thing that is not [vegetarian]."
The Postville plant, according to the video, places the cattle in rotating
drums so that they can be turned and slaughtered while upside down, a prac-
tice required by the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel.
Rabbi Krupnik said he didn't know that system was used anywhere in North
America, where the general practice is to closely pen the standing animal
before the neck is cut. But, he said, he saw nothing halachically improper with
the way the slaughtering was shown in the film. I I
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12/10
2004
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