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An Austrian State May Require Registration for Orthodox Jews to Buy Kosher Meats
When I read the headline, I felt nauseous. Visions of yellow stars drifted through my head. Before I completely overreacted, I thought I should check out the facts; after checking, I was less alarmed, but not by much.
In Lower Austria, Gottfried Waldhäusl, a cabinet minister and Freedom Party member in the state of Lower Austria, is in charge of animal welfare as well as other responsibilities. A draft decree has been issued there to ban sales of kosher meat except to those people who register for permits who can prove they are observant Jews. He insisted that these requirements were necessary from the point of view of protecting animals.
Critics of the production of kosher meats declare that the practices to produce kosher meats are cruel. Observant Jews, however, along with other requirements, require that the animal be killed in one blow, to prevent suffering.
Klaus Schneeberger, the regional leader of the ruling Austrian People’s party of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, has said the plan will not be implemented. Complications may arise since the Austrian People’s Party entered a coalition agreement with the Freedom Party or FPO last year following a federal election. The FPO was created by a former Nazi SS soldier in the 1950s. The party has been accused of using anti-Semitic rhetoric although it has most recently tried to distance itself from this kind of speech.
A couple of factors related to the current climate strike me: the focus of this decree has been on the Jews, even though it will likely affect Muslims, too. Some right-wing secret student fraternities, which have existed for many years, embrace anti-Semitic rhetoric. The Forum Against Anti-Semitism in Austria received 503 reported cases of anti-Semitism. On one level, anti-Semitic acts are hardly unheard of in Europe; on the other hand, this combination of factors is hard to ignore.
A politically correct tweet was issued by the Austrian Ambassador to Israel saying:
It has given rise to great concerns in Austria’s Jewish and Muslim community. Leading politicians from Lower Austria have thus gone on record and made it clear that they will find a solution together with these communities—and allay all fears!
Why am I not reassured?
Published in Politics
This is a relevant argument and expression of the key element. In a free society, yes, the government must not overly intrude upon the citizen.
How do you ensure in high density industrial economies that the population’s demand for fresh meat is satisfied and people do not constantly face the risk of intoxication by impaired product? You set rules and standard for meat processing. From rearing, through transporting, slaughtering, butchering, cooling, packaging and distributing it. If you do not, many consumers suffer. Try solving it without a bare minimum of quality standards, process rules, craftsmanship, training, preparation, monitoring, and enforcement. We can debate the intensity/comprehensiveness of rules, their depth and reach but as societies we will not be able to avoid setting rules.
The rules in the Christian states of northern/central Europe (yes, not as free as the U.S. with the exception of Switzerland, which has a very direct, well functioning republic with democratic voting systems) do not need to adopt ancient culturally designed, climate and tribally driven middle Eastern rules for the aforementioned. These unfree European societies can/will happily stick with their rules up until an overwhelming majority of Muslims were to appear as electorate (very unlikely). Some of them allow imports of kosher/halal meat products, others provide limited exemptions, whatever makes a tolerant system work. But the overwhelming majority of the population and electorate prefer their meat as is.
The electorate gets what it votes for.
Ceterum Censeo: Stunning is preferable to protect the animal in the current industrial meat production from excess pain. It has benefits to the quality of the meat being preserved from that point onwards.
First, I don’t disagree with rules for meat processing, particularly when they relate to health.
It is precisely the “depth and reach” I’m disagreeing with, go beyond protecting the people’s wellbeing.
I see you still prefer to call these holy practices tribal; do you not see the insult in that description? I am not asking the “Christian states” to adopt “tribal” practices. I am saying that if the Jews and Muslims prefer this practice, it is outside of the government’s rights to prohibit it. You have no idea how well or poorly the practice is done, practice that has been done for thousands of years by highly skilled practitioners. Do you know that stunning is always done perfectly, without any difficulties? I suggest that you purchase the meat you wish and leave the Observant Jews alone.
The problem I’m having isn’t how well my German works; with Google Translate in the mix it works well enough. The problem is access to the article texts. However, there were some relevant article links provided when I tried to access the article.
This is from one on meat quality:
A 1994 article by Temple Grandin discussing ritual slaughter and animal welfare.
A 2004 review article in the UK’s Veterinary Review looking at the available science and the implications of the extremely rapid exsanguination resulting from the simultaneous severing of both carotid arteries and both jugular veins that shechitah accomplishes; the technical requirements of shechitah are much stricter than those of halal slaughter. Its conclusion is that properly done, shechitah produces stunning.
@balticsnowtiger, your comment about “properly done’ is pertinent, but the problems are manageable… and mechanical or electrical stunning isn’t perfect either. This is definitely one area in which consumer input would help drive the market. Right now it’s helping… at the high end, where ethical considerations and the quality of the shechitah drive decisions on where to buy kosher meat. Ultimately, the solution to your objection is a political one.
In conclusion, Temple Grandin again:
Thanks so much for all of this information, OTLC. I especially appreciated Temple Grandin’s paper–very objective and informative. I also liked her comment:
Evaluation of religious slaughter is an area where many people have lost scientific objectivity. This has resulted in biased and selective reviewing of the literature. Politics have interfered with good science. There are three basic issues. They are stressfulness of restraint methods, pain perception during the incision and latency of onset of complete insensibility.
It seems that avoiding politics is very difficult. Thanks again.
Susan – Perfection is certainly not a human thing, that is reserved for higher beings. None of what I briefly summarised is an insult, just because the many then regional civilisations in the Middle East with their tribal attitudes as valiantly depicted e.g. in the Old Testament acted within their Overton Window, within their knowledge and customs. Now, the IDF other than in individual combat training does not use spears and stones, it just about flies and drives and shoots the most advanced technology there is. Evolving technique and technology is not a sign of atheism or disdain, it may actually have health and quality benefits.
Every practitioner is fallible, whatever the skills, human after all. I shall invite you to visit a few industrial meat processing plants to see how the stunning is done. Not pretty. Bolt shots. Quite lethal in themselves. Notably, as to leaving people alone, none of my arguments were directed as to saying the exemptions could not be made for exactly such religious reasons, but for industrial meat processing required for high density populations we may have to consider suitable process technology. The latter matters for the vast majority of different populations in the areas initially highlighted in the post.
Stunning has been quite perfected in industrial slaughtering and meat processing. North America and Europe are considered to be rather advanced in this.
I will attempt to retrieve the articles and find suitable excerpt etc. There is tons more. Apologies.
Temple Grandin is an American veterinarian who consults extensively in the meat processing industry. When she writes
she is saying by implication that the combination of
in an animal brought to slaughter in a calm state (the sightlines and how and where the passageways through the facility touch the animal’s body are a particular expertise of Grandin’s) meets or exceeds the humane criteria which concern you.
As you point out, there are objective behavioral criteria which can be used to determine the quality of the process; shechitah properly done can meet them. To American sensibilities, codifying those standards, setting objective performance criteria (85% or higher or whatever) and then monitoring compliance is where government has a role to play. A blanket ban on ritual slaughter when it is possible to do it humanely is out of bounds. The U.S.A. has gone to considerable effort to live up to “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”