Jews in U.S. Warned on Anti-shechitah Bill Due in Congress This Month

Orthodox Jewish leaders today alerted American Jews to the danger of possible passage by Congress of a bill which may affect shechitah. A warning to this effect was issued today by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada and by Dr. Isaac Lewin, leader of the Agudath Israel of America.

The bill, introduced during the first half of the 85th Congressional session, is scheduled to come up before the House of Representatives late this month. It favors compulsory stunning of animals prior to slaughter and prescribes special handling procedures. Shechitah calls for the killing of an animal with a quick thrust of a knife.

Dr. Lewin, who is professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University and often appears before the United Nations on matters dealing with human rights, termed the situation regarding Congressional legislation affecting shechitah “dangerous and extremely delicate.” He cited the opposition of the Department of Agriculture to humane slaughter bills as strong evidence that they are not meant to foster humaneness to animals.

In support of this assertion, the Agudah leader quotes testimony of Dr. M. R. Clarkson, deputy administrator of the Agricultural Research Service of the Department of Agriculture, before a Congressional committee studying humane slaughter bills.

According to Dr. Clarkson, “no one, to our knowledge, has authoritatively evaluated the effects of this procedure (stunning) from the standpoint of humane treatment of the animal. In many cases of electrical stunning, undesirable hemorrhaging occurs in the muscular portion of the carcass. With the present state of our knowledge I don’t see how we could say that subjection of an animal to CO2 gas is any more humane than the use of the knife with its quick thrust.”