A new method for preparing and handling animals for slaughter, so that shackling and hoisting are eliminated but the needs of kashruth are not violated, was announced here today by the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
According to ASPCA president William Rockefeller, the society “worked out its solution of a worldwide problem with complete respect for the 4,000-year-old Jewish ritual of shechitah, kosher slaughter.”
In a statement by Rabbi Israel Klavan, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Council of America, the announcement was hailed as “a dramatic breakthrough” and an “unprecedented contribution” as well as a “considerable economic saving for the meat industry.”
Both Mr. Rockefeller and Rabbi Klavan pointed out that the ASPCA has been working with leading rabbinical figures for more than a year, through the Joint Advisory Committee of the Synagogue Council of America and the National Community Relations Advisory Council. The Synagogue Council embraces the lay and rabbinical organizations of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of American Judaism. The NCRAC is the coordinating body for six national and 72 local Jewish community relations organizations.
Among prominent leaders of the Jewish community who joined Rabbi Klavan in hailing the ASPCA announcement were Rabbi Pinkhas Teitz, of the presidium of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada; and Rabbi Bernard J. Bamberger and Mortimer Brenner, co-chairmen of the Joint Advisory Committee. A letter from the co-chairmen to the ASPCA declared: “We are proud to have had a part in what the ASPCA has done.” One of the patents for the new method was given to the ASPCA by the Joint Committee, Mr. Rockefeller said. The patents will be made available without cost or royalty to the meat industry.
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.
