A movement to ban shechitah in Holland was withdrawn
this month, although the referendum gained a "very
disturbing" amount of popularity, says Dr. Avi Beker,
secretary general of the World Jewish Congress.
Norway and Sweden have laws in place prohibiting
shechitah, but they allow kosher meat to be imported.
Shechitah has been banned in Norway since 1930.
Of course, notes Beker, the exorbitant costs this incurs are
passed on to the consumer. Austria has a law prohibiting
shechitah, although they have exemptions for Jews but
not Muslims.
Spain allows only goats and sheep to be ritually
slaughtered.
The Swiss have a limited ban on shechitah, allowing
poultry, but not beef. However, they now have a referendum
under consideration that would ban all kosher meat, imported
or otherwise. A recent poll shows a staggering 76 percent of
the Swiss population supports the ban.
In shechitah, the animal is killed with a sharply-
honed knife within a fraction of a second. In non-kosher
slaughter, the animal is stunned before being killed.
While "animal rights" groups are at the forefront of many of
the initiatives to ban shechitah, Beker says there is
a great deal of underhanded antisemitism at play as well.
"There are opposition groups that are pro-nature like Friends
of the Earth at work on the anti-shechitah laws, but
it's interesting to see they are also attacking other rituals
that Jews have observed for thousands of years. This is
clearly an antisemitic trend."
For example, there was an attempt at making ritual
circumcision illegal recently in Sweden.
"We see this come up frequently," says Beker. "They imply
that the rights of the child are being violated, and that
circumcision should be postponed until the child is grown and
can make the decision on his own. They claim," he adds in a
tone laden with sarcasm, "this would be less traumatic."
Those working to ban shechitah by postulating that the
practice is inhumane are presenting false information, says
Rabbi Doniel Schur of Heights Jewish Center Synagogue who
supervises kashrut for certain food establishments in
Cleveland.
"I've experienced slaughterhouses," the rabbi adds. "In the
early 1950s, they (non-kosher slaughterers) would take a
heavy mallet and try to stun the animal by giving it a good
zets (blow) on the head three or four times. They
would then take a circular knife and puncture the jugular
vein, then cut the trachea and esophagus."
For pigs, says Schur, the slaughter was even more traumatic:
Because pig hair would stiffen after the animal was dead,
butchers would stab the neck of the pig and throw the still-
live animal, squealing and bleeding, into a giant vat of
boiling water.
By contrast, Schur points out, the shochet uses a
knife so smooth and sharp, it can't even have the tiniest
nick. With one motion, the neck is slit forward and backward,
and all the nerves in the esophagus are severed.
"The animal is completely dead within a fraction of a second,
and all the blood is released." In non-kosher slaughter, most
of the blood remains in the animal.
Today, Schur adds, the stun gun replaces the mallet and the
animal is shot in the brain. Stun guns do not always render
the animal unconscious on the first shot. Meanwhile, the
shochet still uses his razor-sharp knife.
"There is nothing as humane as shechitah," Schur
asserts. "To say otherwise is antisemitism, and nothing more
than that."
