Postville, IA – PETA New Undercover Video Accusations: Agriprocessors Doing Inhumane Slaughter

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    Postville, IA – An animal rights organization secretly recorded a video last month in the slaughterhouse of a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and presented it to the Department of Agriculture, claiming it showed inhumane practices in the killing of cattle.

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    The brief video, about four minutes long, was recorded on Aug. 13 without the knowledge of managers in the Postville, Iowa, plant of Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacker, by a representative of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, according to Hannah Schein, investigations specialist for the group, known as PETA.

    She said the video showed three instances in which Agriprocessors workers made unauthorized hacking cuts in the necks of still-conscious animals.

    Department of Agriculture officials confirmed today that they had examined the PETA video and said inspectors from the department’s Food Safety Inspection Service based at the plant had subsequently witnessed at least one similar violation.

    But the inspectors determined the violations were “not egregious,” said the inspection service spokeswoman, Amanda Eamich. She said the plant was currently in full compliance with humane slaughter regulations.

    The new video reprises a confrontation between PETA and Agriprocessors in 2004, when a representative of the animal rights group worked undercover in the plant for seven weeks. A video that PETA released then prompted a six-month investigation by the Department of Agriculture, which reported many violations of animal cruelty laws at the plant.

    After that report, Agriprocessors changed its slaughter practices, responding to pressure from agriculture officials and from Orthodox Union kosher certification authorities. More recently the company was once again the center of controversy after nearly 400 illegal immigrants were detained at the Postville plant in a raid in May.

    In August, PETA sent a representative to work clandestinely in the Postville plant for one week, Ms. Schein said, after about two dozen Orthodox rabbis and leaders visited the plant in late July and praised its kosher slaughter practices as state-of-the-art.

    The new PETA video was recorded in the plant’s beef kill room, which is equipped with a bin that turns the animals upside down and exposes their throats. Following Jewish dietary laws, the animals are killed by rabbis specializing in ritual slaughter who make one long cut across the throat. This type of religious slaughter is allowed under exemptions in federal animal cruelty laws.

    Under the regulations, a “second cut” in an animal’s throat can be made only in exceptional cases by rabbis or under their supervision. These cuts are sometimes made to speed blood flow from the animals.

    Temple Grandin, a livestock handling expert cited by PETA, said the second cuts shown on the August video, which appeared to have been performed by nonreligious workers without rabbis present, would “definitely cause the animal pain.” She called on the Department of Agriculture to install monitoring videos in the kill rooms.

    Ms. Eamich, the spokeswoman for the Food Safety Inspection Service, said Agriprocessors had agreed to suspend any second cuts until it received approval from kosher certifying authorities and the Agriculture Department.

    A spokesman for Agriprocessors, Menachem Lubinsky, said kosher slaughter was handled by Orthodox Jewish certifying authorities at the plant and company managers were not directly involved. Kosher authorities are working with food inspectors to clarify when the second cut can be used, Mr. Lubinsky said.


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    25 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    if shechita is ever banned in the usa, we can thank the rubashkins, lubinsky, lewin, the ou, r’weissmandel, and everyone else that is an enabler here.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    During shechita, the carotid arteries, which are the main supplier of blood to the brain, are severed. This results in an immediate and massive drop in blood pressure, which renders the animal insensate in a matter of seconds. At AgriProcessors, Inc., as at other plants, a second cut is made in the carotid arteries to facilitate and accelerate the bleeding. This secondary cut is both approved and encouraged by the USDA. The OU and AgriProcessors, Inc. have concluded that this cut will now be made without excising the trachea.

    past posting on ou site

    Who_me
    Who_me
    15 years ago

    Who’s talking about banning Shechita?

    The issue here is the second cut, which is done to speed the blood draining, in order to minimize blood-stains on the meat.

    But, if what the article says is true, then the solution is to have the rabbis supervise it. As simple as that! No enabler, No banning, & No nonsense!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    .With the act of shechita, it is common to cut the carotid arteries, a

    practice designed to facilitate bleeding and accelerate

    unconsciousness. Excision of the trachea, however, is not common

    practice. We wish to make clear that nothing in any such post-shechita

    “second cut” or excision in any way undermines the validity of the

    shechita itself or the kosher status of the slaughtered animal’s meat.

    We further note that regulations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

    explicitly approve a second cut to facilitate bleeding.Rabbi Yisroel Belsky

    Halachic Consultant

    Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

    Rabbi Sholem Fishbane

    Kashruth Administrator

    Chicago Rabbinical Council

    Rabbi Menachem Genack

    Rabbinic Administrator

    Kashrus Division

    Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

    Rabbi Asher Hatchuel

    Rabbinic Head

    Sephardic Beth Din of America

    Rabbi Moshe Heinemann

    Rabbinic Administrator

    Star-K Certification

    Rabbi Emanuel Holzer

    Chairman, Kashrus Committee

    Rabbinical Council of America

    Rabbi Chaim Kohn

    Rabbinic Administrator

    Khal Adas Jeshurun

    Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz

    Head of Beth Din

    Chicago Rabbinical Council

    Rabbi Yitzchok Stein

    Rabbinic Head

    Beth Din of Karlsburg

    Rabbi Yechiel Steinmetz

    Rabbinic Judge

    Monsey, NY

    Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum

    Nirbater Rav

    Rabbinic Supervisor

    Alle Processing Corporation

    Rabbi Menachem Meir Weissmandl

    Rabbinic Head

    Nitra Beth Din of Monsey

    Learn Your Facts
    Learn Your Facts
    15 years ago

    It is actually just the opposite.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I am the parent of an autistic individual so I respect those with disabilities.

    The article quotes the opinion of Temple Grandin. Considering that Ms Grandin is very autistic I am not sure that she said and meant exactly what is atributed to her. her expertise is in designing the path the animals follow not in knowing what physical pain they feel.

    wow
    wow
    15 years ago

    temple is autistic (maybe from the mmr) she claims she can feel on her throat the pain of the animal during schita… gi gleib ier… I think obama should consider taking her as vp running mate in 12….

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Dr. Grandin is a Phd in animal behavior. She is quite expert in understanding signs of animal distress.

    Vote McCain - Palin In 08!
    Vote McCain - Palin In 08!
    15 years ago

    Who me?

    Yeah you! GET IT THRU YOUR HEAD, THEY WANT TO BAN SH’CHITA. That will be followed by banning all meat. They are a bunch of wakkos.

    I say we should shecht them. Tell them its an experiment to see if they feel pain. Considering PITA yemach shmom v’zichrom is a pain, I wonder if they feel it.

    Anon 1042p,

    Temple Grandin has a way to be one with the animal and she is able to feel the pain that the animal feels. I say she is ingantzin mshiga in kup aran!

    Part of the problem here is that we keep making excuses for sh’chita instead of saying something like, “We do Sh’chita this way because this what that HKBH told Moshe Rabaynu on Har Sinai. If you have a problem with it, please die and take it up with G-d Himself.” Thats all. No excuses. Enough.

    x218
    x218
    15 years ago

    peta y”machshmum… no one will stop our laws.. of they would say this to the arabs, nobody at peta would still have a head…

    tsvika55
    tsvika55
    15 years ago

    ppl shold daven for rubashkis and not constantly attac them…

    Shvitzer
    Shvitzer
    15 years ago

    Something tells me that G-D is angry at the Rubashkins or maybe us ?

    Yid
    Yid
    15 years ago

    It seeems to me like the Schein’s are the big instigators here. While boasting to the world of their practicing Jew status (which gives more credence to their “worthy cause”, they secretly go and incite problems for kosher establishments. You want to be a vegetarian, fine, but don’t go mosering and jeapordizing the entire Kosher shechita market with your self-rightousness!

    PRL
    PRL
    15 years ago

    This is NOT about shechitah. This is about an unnecessary “second cut” perfomed after shechitah which the OU’s Rabbi Genack said is done only for “commercial reasons”. It has no religious purpose. Further, the New York Times article says that the gouging second cut was done by a layperson, a “nonreligious workers” (not a shochet). So the issue has nothing to do with shechitah. Agriprocessors is violating tza’ar baalei chayim – they are causing suffering unncessarily just for the sake of commercial purposes alone. This is shameful.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    I can’t believe that you are missing the point completely. Rubashkin said he would stop the second cut. Everyone said he would stop the second cut.

    He didn’t.

    PETA
    PETA
    15 years ago

    With all due respect, Who cares about PETA?

    They want to ban Kaporos.

    They want to ban Shechita.

    This is not the fault of Meat companies. PETA doesn’t announce this, but read their stuff, what they are after is having people eat NO MEAT.

    They ran an ad last year showing chickens in a pen, and in photo shop made them look like Jewish prisoners behind barbed wire in a Nazi Concentration Camp.

    There was huge outrage. But that’s PETA.

    What’s sad, is to see how many otherwise NORMAL Jews fall for what they say. It’s shameful how Jews will bend over backward to put down another Jewish family, in the face of such a disgusting, extreme, whacked out group that nobody takes seriously.

    Come on, people.

    Oh, by the way Hitler also valued animals over people. Where did that lead?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Its true that the only thing they want to do is ban shichta!!! the reason the Rubashkins have to suffer is because its the only kosher JEWISH owned slautherhouse in the U.S.A. the rest DONT have there own place, they shecht by non jewish

    David
    David
    15 years ago

    Maybe its time for frum Jews to become vegetarians until we learn how to treat both animals, and our fellow humans with concern, dignity and deceny, and then we will be deserving to eat meat again.

    willamsburg jew
    willamsburg jew
    15 years ago

    tomorrow they will come ban kappros again if they will succeed we may chas vshalom see live before yom tov hom hanna & philip yidel shain record with tv camera and pist it for peta hashem yishmor

    understand nisht
    understand nisht
    15 years ago

    willamsburg jew I don’t get you in your words is Philp and hanna shain related to yidal sahin?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    PRL: If the second cut is done after the shechita, isn’t the animal dead?

    Shloimy
    Shloimy
    15 years ago

    PETA is also the organization that had nothing to say about Arab terror attacks against Jews, until they once placed a suicide bomb on a donkey! THEN they protested vehemently.

    So to PETA, it is acceptable to kill, maim and terrorize human beings, but just don’t hurt any animals.

    They are also against using animals to do medical tests that can result in saving human lives.

    Why should anyone care what PETA has to say? I don’t.

    Genius
    Genius
    15 years ago

    To all you meat lovers out there (or should i say stomach lovers) – Do you think that causing an animal even a small amount of pain is acceptable?

    The issur of Tzar Baali Chaim is there for a purpose. When the world was created we weren’t allowed to eat meat! It was only after Noach was it permitted.

    Just because we are now allowed to (or maybe even commanded to) now eat meat, doesn’t detract from the fact that we should still be as humane as we can in regard to animals, shechita & eating meat. I don’t agree with PETA, but it doesn’t mean we have free reign to treat animals with no respect.

    PETA_who
    PETA_who
    15 years ago

    Who gives a hoot what PETA says? they are immoral brainless activists, a.k.a. ‘toothless animals’.

    The USDA has inspectors in every slaughterhouse & nothing there is inhumane or Tzaar Balei Chaim.

    The Shechita method, which is Halocho L’Moshe M’Sinai, renders the animal dead once the greater half of the 2 simonim were severed, which occurs before the arteries are cut.

    moving to the Left
    moving to the Left
    15 years ago

    There were many Rabbis who frowned upon kaparos. What’s the big mitzva in taking a (frightened) chicken and swinging it over your head? It seems that a good potion of the frum world are not rachmanim on Hashem’s creations. Shame on you.