The Antisemitism of Animal Rights Activists

When I was a boy (about 10 or 11 years old) my father (who was a Shochet in Toledo), took me to the slaughterhouse to watch him do a Shechita (ritual slaughter). The steer was a bit feisty so the gentile workers told him ‘Don’t worry, rabbi. We’ll take care if it for you. My father protested saying that he has it handled. But in the blink of an eye, they placed the steer into a pen and banged its head with a huge mallet. A process called stunning.

My father then proceeded to slaughter it and then he put it in the Treif pile.  When an internal organ is damaged in any way, that animal can no longer be considered Kosher. Kosher slaughter does not allow for stunning. Halacha requires that all the animal’s organs to be undamaged if the Shechita is to be effective – making its meat kosher for consumption.

The laws governing Kosher slaughter are biblical, discussed extensively in the Gemarah, and codified in the Shulchan Aruch - our code of Jewish law. While this is a bit of an oversimplification, it is nonetheless basic Halacha.

Kosher slaughter has been challenged many times in recent years by animal rights activists like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They insist that the most humane manner of animal slaughter is when stunning is done before the kill.  The animal is thereby rendered unconscious and won’t feel the pain of the slaughter.  That has motivated some European countries to outlaw Kosher slaughter for ‘humane’ reasons. (Or so they say. In my view it is at the core antisemitic.) 

Which brings me to the following story in the National Post about one of the most developed, enlightened, and progressive western democracies on the planet, Canada:   

Jewish organizations are taking the federal government to court to challenge new rules they fear spell the end of kosher animal production in Canada.  

In a statement of claim filed earlier this week in Federal Court, the applicants seek to strike down new Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) rules requiring that non-stunned animals be subjected to cognitive tests to ensure they’re irreversibly unconscious before being processed.  

Jewish organizations are taking the federal government to court to challenge new rules they fear spell the end of kosher animal production in Canada.  

In typical non-kosher abattoirs, cattle are usually rendered unconscious via a powerful blow to the head from a bolt gun, then are hung up and have their necks slit, and are drained of blood until dead.

 In kosher slaughter, or shechita, animals are killed by trained Shochetim who use smooth, razor-sharp knives to sever the animal’s throat in a single, uninterrupted motion before letting the animal bleed out. It is commonly believed that the method is painless and at least as humane as the stunning technique, although Jews believe it is the more humane method because the animal is rendered almost immediately unconscious.  

Why does any government legislate a law based  on the assertions of animal rights activists? Do they really believe it is more ethical than a procedure that has been used for millennia by the Jewish people? A procedure widely regarded as one of the most humane ways to kill an animal? The only answer that can explain this law is that it is based on a view that religious laws are archaic and even dangerous. They ‘know’ that stunning an animal before slaughter is more humane way to kill it. 

Really? Well here’s an idea then. Let us first stun a death row inmate before we execute them!  

Think about that for a minute. How many people think a strong blow to the head before an instant death caused by a slit to the throat is a good idea? I sure don’t.

I am so sick of culturally defined ethics. Especially when those ‘ethics’ are framed by people that see a human being as just another animal and not entitled to any more rights than a rat. It  is people like this that call the mass slaughter of chickens for human consumption a ‘Chicken Holocaust’! 

That is the  kind of thinking that can only exist in the mind of people that deny the existence of God.  As such they see religion as an impediment to the advancement of progressive ideas. Especially a religion with so many rules and rituals like Judaism. Rules and rituals they believe were developed by ancient man and labeled godly in order to make those rules stick. Ethics based on ancient  rituals are therefore considered primitive and inhumane. 

They do not want to be confused by the fact that. Kosher slaughter is recognized as one of the most humane methods of animal slaughter. Since it is based on a religious ritual it is invalidated and discarded by the progressive mindset of our day. Which they say is ‘obviously more ethical’

This is a special kind kind of antisemitism. Biased against  the ethics and morality of a bible that would deny them the freedom to imbibe in all manner of immoral behavior because some nonexistent god said it was immoral. Reasoning that now that we are more enlightened; our values are more progressive and  purer that the driven snow. Religion, especially Judaism is the opiate of the masses and the more knowledgeable progressive society in which we live needs to eradicate any vestiges of it. So that we can be freed. to live as we choose. That is what ethics are all about to them. 

What about religious freedom? To the contrary. They consider religion a prison from which we should all finally be liberated.