British Jews Happy with Decision Not to Label Kosher Slaughter

Jewish groups expressed satisfaction this week that the Agriculture Ministry has rejected proposals by animal rights groups to label meat produced by kosher slaughtering methods to be sold to the non-kosher market.

The fear is that if meat were labeled, some non-kosher retailers would refuse to stock it, causing economic difficulty for the kosher trade, explained Berel Berkovits, a dayan, or religious court judge, of the Federation of Synagogues.

Therefore, the Agriculture Ministry’s decision is “good news.”

“They didn’t see that labeling would bring any benefits, either in terms of animal welfare or consumer needs,” Berkovits said.

But the federation, which monitors new shechita regulations, is seriously concerned that other restrictive measures, including a similar labeling proposal, could be adopted by the European Community, making it binding on Britain.

The Conference of European Rabbis has been waging an ongoing struggle to preserve the right to slaughter animals according to kashrut laws.

A Council of Europe decision to drop all proposed measures to ban or restrict shechita was reported in Jerusalem last month by Rabbi Avraham Guigui of Brussels, who represents the rabbinical conference on shechita issues.

Berkovits said he “heard that the council was going to drop the proposal, but I’ve yet to have it officially confirmed.”

The council, which includes the 12 E.C. states plus Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, can only recommend policies, whereas E.C. decisions are binding on all members.

The E.C. is proposing that animals killed after slaughter should not be moved for 30 seconds or until cessation of brain stem reflexes.

“This would cause practical problems, because it would slow up shechita,” Berkovits said.