European Rabbis Waging Battle to Defend Kosher Meat Slaughter

The Conference of European Rabbis has won an important round with the Council of Europe in its struggle to preserve the right to slaughter animals according to the laws of kashrut, and is now seeking a similar victory in the European Community.

Rabbi Avraham Guigui of Brussels reported on the struggle against attempts to ban or restrict ritual slaughter, or shechita, to close to 60 of his colleagues at the Conference European Rabbis, which was held here last week to discuss issues of common interest. The gathering was held under the auspices of Religious Affairs Minister Avner Shaki.

Guigui, who represents the rabbinical conference on issues of shechita in contacts with intergovernmental bodies, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that in a recent meeting with officials of the Council of Europe, the officials “decided to drop all proposed measures to ban or restrict shechita, after they heard our presentation.”

He said that groups for the prevention of cruelty to animals had campaigned against ritual slaughter, as practiced by Jews and Moslems.

Their main claim in regard to Jewish practice is that any method of slaughter that does not include stunning the animal before it is killed–such as shechita — causes needless pain and should be banned.

The Council of Europe, which includes the 12 European Community states and others, such as Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, can only recommend certain policies to its members, Guigui said.

Much more serious, he said, are the regulations now being prepared by the European Community for 1992, which when passed will be binding on its member countries.

CONCERN OVER MOSLEM SLAUGHTER

“Our goal,” Guigui said, “is to have all European countries, and particularly the E.C., recognize shechita as an acceptable method of slaughter.

“The declaration adopted by the Council or Europe said that ritual slaughter should be carried out only in licensed slaughter houses by authorized experts. As Jews, we have no problem with this, since this is the way shechita is practiced,” he explained.

“There has been a positive atmosphere in our talks with the E.C., and I hope that the issues can be resolved in the next few weeks,” Guigui said.

Shechita was banned previously in Switzerland and Sweden.

Part of the anti-shechita atmosphere, Guigui said, was generated by opposition to Moslem ritual slaughter, which can be performed anywhere, with any kind of knife, and by anyone, which often creates unsanitary conditions.

There has been no cooperation between Jews and Moslems, he said, in contacts with the Council of Europe or the European Community.

The Council of Europe had realized, he said, that shechita could not incorporate stunning into its procedures. Nevertheless, certain proposals were raised to restrict shechita.

“They wanted shechita to be limited to local consumption and not for export. They also wanted the shochet (slaughterer) to be under veterinary supervision, which of course is impossible for us,” Guigui said.

“They also wanted the meat from the hindquarters, which Jews do not eat, to bear a stamp that it had been slaughtered according to shechita. This would make it much more difficult to sell these portions to Gentiles, and would considerably raise the price of kosher meat.”

What convinced the council to drop these proposals, he said, was “testimony by veterinary experts given on our behalf. They presented scientific proof that shechita causes no more pain to the animal than the stunning method does.”