Evaluation of Slaughter Video by Temple Gradnin

During my career I have visited over 30 kosher beef plants in the US, Canada and other countries. I have also worked on designing restraint equipment to replace shacking and hoisting in kosher slaughter plants. Kosher slaughter with out stunning can be done with an acceptable level of welfare when it is performed correctly with the long knife the cattle appear not to feel it.

The tape shows atrocious procedures that are NOT performed in any other kosher operation. Removal of the trachea and other internal parts before the animal has become insensible would cause great suffering and pain. Many of the cattle on this tape had this dressing procedure performed when they were still fully sensible. Several cattle were walking around with the trachea and other parts hanging out of them. To provide an acceptable level of welfare the animal MUST be allowed to become fully insensible after shehita before any dressing procedure is done. This plant also has some serious cattle handling and restraint problems abiout 50% of thee cattle were vocalizing during handling and restraint. This is due to bad practices such as using an electric prod to position the animals head in the head holder. In a well run kosher plant the percentage of cattle that would vocalize during handling and restraint would be 5%.

To bring this plant up to an acceptable level of animal welfare the following is required, items 1 and 2 are the most important,

1. ALL cattle must be completely insensible before trachea removal or any other skinning procedure is conducted. Shehita (religious slaughter) is the ONLY procedure that can be conducted on a sensible animal.
2. Improve handling and other procedures to reduce the percentage of cattle that vocalize to 5%. This will be in compliance with AMI guidelines.
3. Implement a system of internal and third party audits to maintain animal welfare standards.
4. For the highest level of animal welfare perform shehita while the animal is in the upright position
In conclusion many of the cattle that had their trachea removed were fully conscious and fully sensible. The duration of complete sensibility was probably prolonged by the pain of having their inner tissues cut and pulled during this dressing procedures.