kosher meat

[lilmomma]

if I buy kosher meat, does that mean it was grass fed and humanely raised?

[The Chowhound Team]

Folks, we're going to close this thread now. It seems that lilmomma's question has been answered, and we're not the right place to debate the ethics of various slaughter practices.

[Pollo]

Kosher "slaughter" is anything but humane. You basically cut the throat of a live and fully conscious animal and you let it bleed to death....needles to say with the larger animals it takes a while.....

[small h]

Everything I know about slaughterhouses I learned from Frederick Wiseman and Temple Grandin, so please tell me: How are "humanely raised" animals killed? Because the kosher method - super-sharp knife, etc. - is supposed to ensure that the animal suffers as little as possible.

[Pollo]

It's one thing to be "told" how things are done and another to actually see how it is done. "Coventional" slaughter is bad enough but Kosher "kill" step is another story. I would suggest that you visit a Kosher slaughterhouse and see for yourself. Alternatively go to "youtube" and search for "kosher shechita".....

[ferret]

I've witnessed it in person. If anyone has issue with animals being killed for meat then it's time to reconsider your dietary choices. Killing cows is not pretty any way it's done.

[small h]

That doesn't answer my question. I'm not interested in a debate about the merits of one method vs. another. I'm asking, sincerely, how a "humanely raised" cow is killed. And it's possible the Wiseman reference meant nothing to you, but he directed a documentary called Meat (1976), which exhaustively depicts the slaughter of cattle. Since I've seen that, I don't need to go searching around for other examples.

[linguafood]

But bleeding an animal out isn't painful. It may have been hard to watch, but it's a method I'd prefer as opposed to a stun/bolt gun that may nor may not do the trick, or an electric shock.

[ferret]

That's not entirely accurate, you sever the trachea, esophagus and carotid artery of the animal in a single motion of the blade, essentially killing it. It doesn't "bleed to death" because it's already dead. The heart will continue pumping for a few moments but that's an involuntary act. It's neither worse nor appreciably better than any other form of slaughter.

[Pollo]

ferret - that the "official" story we are beeing told and you are just repating it. Cutting the artery and esophagus does not result in instant death - brain is still working, nerves are still sensing and hart is still beating - far from quick and painless (there is no "stunning" or "anesthesia").

[linguafood]

I take it you're a vegetarian? What method do you propose would be more humane?

[ferret]

Cutting the carotid renders the animal unconscious. Just ask any victim of LA police choke-holds. Any activity you may attribute to conscious acts is pretty much autonomous and involuntary. So while it's not "instant" cessation of signs of life, it's as close as you'll get.

[small h]

No. Kosher refers primarily to the way the animal was killed, and its blood removed. Here's an article that explains things in (much more) detail:

http://www.ou.org/kosher/primer.html