A delegation from the Canadian Jewish Congress visited the Minister of Agriculture, Douglas S. Harkness, and placed before him the views of the Jewish community on the protection of Shechitah and pre-slaughter handling. A bill enacted recently in Parliament permits the government to make regulations on methods of slaughter of food animals.
The Minister indicated that Shechitah would be included among the permitted methods of slaughter, but that shackling and hoisting an animal before rendering it unconscious would be considered inhumane.
A Congress submission left with the Minister and with his senior departmental officers pointed out that “the recognition of Shechitah as a humane method may be nullified if m safeguards are available to assure workable pre-slaughter conditions prior to Shechitah.” The American experience as gathered by representative Jewish institutions in the U. S. was also submitted in the form of a brief to the Minister.
In the meantime Canada Packers Corp., is studying changes in the present methods preparing animals for the process of Shechitah, and several demonstrations in the presence of rabbis and communal leaders have taken place. Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik of Boston has been consulted on certain problems involved in these experiments.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
