When animal cruelty runs afoul of Judaism
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Paul Shapiro, vice president at the Humane Society of the United States, said re-engineering animals to meet our needs “is the opposite of what God intended.”
Photo courtesy HSUD
If you go
Who: Paul Shapiro, Humane Society of the United States
What: Factory Farming, Judaism, and Animal Welfare
Where: Temple Ner Tamid, Bloomfield
When: Friday, Jan. 11, 6:30 p.m. (refreshments before services at 6, followed by vegan dinner and presentation)
RSVP: Laurie Schifano at lschifano@nertamid.org
The evening is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required.
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January 3, 2013
Judaism may have a rich tradition of kindness to animals, but Paul Shapiro sees a disconnect between biblical and talmudic imperatives and the current status quo on factory farms, where 95 percent of all animal products are produced, including kosher meat.
“Animals on factory farms are treated as if they are not God’s creatures but units of production on an assembly line,” said Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States. “Most people don’t think about where their food comes from, and if they do, they envision Old MacDonald’s Farm, where cows are grazing in a pasture and chickens run around.
“But the vast majority of farm animals are subjected to extreme cruelty that few of us would want to bear witness to.”
He described chickens “crammed into cages so small they cannot even move around” and “animals that have body parts cut off without anesthesia, including genitals,” as standard practices.”
Shapiro will address Factory Farming, Judaism, and Animal Welfare on Friday, Jan. 11, at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield. He will speak at a vegan dinner following kabalat Shabbat services, which begin at 6 p.m.
In a phone conversation with NJJN, Shapiro discussed what is wrong with current standards, how kashrut as practiced today is failing animal welfare, and whether there are alternatives for observant Jews.
Shapiro pointed to Genesis 1:29, where God makes a concession after the flood, allowing people to eat meat. But Shapiro added, “There is an intricate set of rules on how it is to be done, refined further in the Talmud.” These regulations often have as their aim kindness toward animals.
Other passages have little to do with food, he said, but make it “difficult to argue that God was unconcerned with the suffering of animals.” There are, for example, rules that prohibit an ox and a donkey from threshing in pairs, farmers from covering the mouths of their plow animals in the field, handlers from injuring animals before they are slaughtered, and all humans from eating the flesh of an animal while it is still alive.
“These were among the first such regulations that existed,” Shapiro said.
Efforts to hold kosher and non-kosher companies to higher ethical standards are not an attempt to apply fashionable standards to age-old practices, he said.
“We are not talking about new concepts. Really, we are just reinvigorating the concept of tza’ar ba’alei chaim” — the mitzva forbidding cruelty to animals — “and taking it more seriously than agribusiness does,” he said.
For those concerned about placing animals on a pedestal, he added, “We do not have to accept that animals are our moral equals to accept that we should be kind and compassionate toward them. We are not worshiping them; we are treating those at our mercy with a modicum of mercy.”
On the contrary, it is “playing God” to re-engineer animals to meet our needs. As a result of selective breeding and growth-promoting drugs, he said, “chickens have difficulty walking because of their massive structure.”
“In a sense, this is the opposite of what God intended.”
While many in the observant Jewish community suggest that kashrut is the most humane method of slaughter, Shapiro, who lives in Washington, DC, and attends the Reform Washington Hebrew Congregation, questions the assumption.
“At the time kashrut was developed, that may have been the case. Back then, it was not out of the norm for people to rip body parts from the animals and eat them while still alive, so kashrut was certainly an improvement,” he said.
He cited videos that show that animals suffer “incredible abuse” during kosher slaughter.
Moreover, he pointed out, “99 percent of the animal’s life has nothing to do with kashrut. We don’t want an animal to be tortured throughout its life and then killed quickly. At the time kashrut standards were developed, there was no factory farming; it was all agricultural.”
There are alternatives to the status quo, he said. The easiest to carry out is simply to eat less meat.
Beyond that, there are several movements afoot to make the kosher industry more humane. Some small companies, including KOL and Grow and Behold, raise animals on farms where they are grass-fed and roam freely. Shapiro approves.
Shapiro is not among fans of the “hechsher tzedek,” a new seal of approval created by the Conservative movement to address standards of humane treatment and social justice. Beyond workers’ rights, “It doesn’t change much; rather, it codifies typical factory farming practices. The so-called animal welfare practices are voluntary and written by the industries,” he said.
Shapiro remains optimistic. Jews, like women, are “over-represented” in the animal rights movement. “Jews are sensitive to the argument that ‘Might makes right’ is not right. We do not have a license to dominate or to subject animals to any amount of suffering or violence or cruelty,” he said.
“This is just not a situation a merciful God would smile upon.”
Comments
Mary Finelli
January 04, 2013
Thank you for this article, NJJN. However, it’s not solely factory farming that causes animals to suffer unnecessarily, all animal agriculture does. Don’t buy the humane myth, see: http://www.humanemyth.org
Why be the cause of needless animal suffering and environmental degradation? The great news is that a diet free of animal products is more healthful, convenient, and delicious than ever. See, for example:
http://tinyurl.com/9gktnh3 and http://www.vrg.org
Karen Davis
January 04, 2013
This interview dances around two core issues, so abstractions about compassion, humaneness, kindness to animals, respect, etc. are pretty words with little substance until we recognize that animal farming is fundamentally abusive and violent toward animals, and always has been. Animal farming is about mutilation, manipulation, and killing of animals. It always was. Animal farming is an inherently violent occupation.
Second, human beings do not need to consume animals, eggs or nursing calves milk in order to obtain protein and other nutrients for a healthy life. It is wrong to sell out animals for products we do not need and would be better off without, physically, ethically, and environmentally. In recent years, evidence of extreme cruelty to animals by small farmers and farms has been documented, not surprisingly. An enterprise based on violence cannot be made humane. This buzzword has become an obscenity.
And why suggest our victims are not our “moral equivalents” Why put condescending, complacent thoughts about (other) animals in people’s minds?
Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns. www.upc-online.org
Jeffrey Cohan
January 04, 2013
Great article and Paul’s tireless work is to be praised.
There is an error in the article, however.
Genesis 1:29, which records the first conversation between God and human beings, mandates a vegan diet for humanity.
The “concession after The Flood” is found in Genesis 9:3.
Mary Zoeter
January 04, 2013
Shapiro says, “The easiest way to carry out is to eat less meat.” No, Paul, the easiest way is to eat no meat. He goes on to say that animals in factory farming are not treated as “God’s creatures”. Guess what? Neither are animals who are raised on Old MacDonald-type farms. Having grown up in a rural environment, I can attest to the fact that animals are generally treated as things on small farms as well as in factory farming.
I believe that an organization which purports to care about animals should advocate a vegan diet in order to eliminate all animal cruelty, whether in factories or on farms.
Richard Schwartz
January 04, 2013
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I want to commend Paul Shapiro for his great efforts, and I wish him and others working for a more compassionate, just, non-violent, environmentally sustainable world much success.
What makes the vast, horrendous mistreatment of animals even more scandalous is that it is to produce a product that is so devastating to human health and contributes substantially to climate change and other environmental threats to humanity.
More information about Jewish teachings about compassion to animals can be found at the JVNA website (JewishVeg.com) and at JewishVeg.com/schwartz, where I have 160 articles, 25 podcasts, and the complete text of the 3rd edition of my book, “judaism and Vegetarianism.” These teachings are dramatized in our award-winning documentary, “A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World.”
Richard Schwartz
January 04, 2013
The documentary I referred to above can be freely seen at aSacredDuty.com
Neva Davis
January 04, 2013
There is no religious requirement to eat animals and so many reasons not to. Foods that don’t contain animal products are essentially kosher by default and are healthful and nutritious.
Even animals treated well are killed at a very young age, and slaughter is still slaughter whether the animal is from a small family farm or a factory farm.
As we grow to understand our world more, we need to begin to take a more responsible role, as guardians, not exploiters. A plant-based diet is kinder to the environment, kinder to our health, and is definitely much kinder to the animals. The truth is that buying animal products labeled as “kosher,” or “humane,” or “organic,” “free-range,” or “family-farmed” make us feel better but don’t really tell us anything about the life the animal endured. When I saw a “cage-free” egg farm I was stunned by how the hens were packed so tightly into the floor space of a dank, dark barn. I realized that the label made no difference, they were still born in hell and lived a short miserable life in hell while used for their eggs. Finally died terribly, either killed when their production declined or simply dying in place while the living were forced to walk over their fallen friends.
Whenever we use others, even animals, for our own purposes, we set ourselves up as God. We are not treating any farmed animals as “God’s creatures.” Instead we breed them, confine them, use them and dictate every aspect of their lives so we can kill them as babies or adolescents (before they get too tough). To live a life of peace we have to make our own habits peaceful, so let’s begin with what we eat.
V
January 04, 2013
Shapiro and those of like mind remain distanced/disconnected from the bigger picture. For a rabbinical view about why Jews should be living a vegan lifestyle, read this amazing 2010 essay from the late Rabbi Simchah Roth here:
http://www.bmv.org.il/v/vegan.html
I urge you to not dismiss the essay and to give it your full attention.
Authentic veganism embraces Reverence For Life and a “Do No Harm/Harm No One” purposed lifestyle. The idea of living a “Do No Harm” lifestyle is not new. It is very, very far from being a new trend. Ample, credible evidence exists from the distant past showing that Noah, Lot, people from the mixed multitudes of collective “Israel” (as referenced in Exodus 12:38), people identified as Jacob’s descendants, people identified as “Jews” (i.e those descendants of Judah, son of Jacob) and people identified as “Gentiles” (i.e. people of other nations) alike all had knowledge that animal slavery, animal exploitation, and violence inflicted upon animals by human hand was aberrant behavior and thus took no part in it. Refusing to partake of murdered animal flesh, blood, and innocent animal “sacrifices” of any kind, they remained faithful to the very first and simplest dietary law given by Elohim (in Genesis 1:29-30). These actions of purity are also in full accordance with the Ten Commandments (i.e. You shall not murder—which literally means “to put a beast to death”/You shall not steal/You shall not lust for anything that does not belong to you) and The Golden Rule. Is this not the foundation of ethical vegan living, as creation was designed to thrive by way of?
Clarification of what actually constitutes as “veganism” is sorely needed, since misconstrued or self-defined terms are rampant these days, seemingly based on individual comfort levels. But let us honor—give utmost respect to—the first individuals who braved being ostracized when they put forth a most noble ideal and formed a word that reflected it. In 1944, the Vegan Society in England coined the term “vegan” and issued the authentic definition as follows:
“Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom (non-human and human), and includes a reverance for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals.” Therefore, in addition to adopting a total vegetarian (i.e plant only) diet, vegans make a conscious daily effort to avoid all forms of exploitation, harm, and cruelty to animals regardless of any “beneficial” end result or any perceived “value” to individuals or society.
Simply asking people to “eat less meat” as a start and refer to these minimal, less than fully dedicated (and convinced) efforts as “steps in the right direction” is akin to asking a rapist to cut down his total number of brutal rapes—let’s encourage a “Rapeless Monday” and “kinder” rapes during the rest of the week; this runs in equivalence to endorsing “Meatless Mondays” or “humane”/“happy meat”, which does not, in truth, exist. If forced rape or slavery can be considered morally wrong, then so can anti-veganism; nothing less than a full commitment to ethical veganism can ever be called “acceptable” or supported in good conscious. You cannot remove the violence, intentional harm, and other moral wrongs associated with non-vegan living.
“We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thank you for allowing me to contribute here.
-V
P.S. Thank you Karen Davis of UPC for your articulate passion and evidenced widening of your circle of compassion. Bravo for your persistent and admirable work in animal rescue, advocacy, and education.
Jamie Cohen
January 06, 2013
I have discussed with the Baltimore Jewish Times many times through the years to do a cover story on why Jews should be vegan since after suffering the WWII holocaust, no Jew should participate in this abusive holocaust of animals. And you can compare humane suffering to non-human suffering. Jeremy Betham said centuries ago, “The question is not Can they reason? Nor Can they talk? But can they suffer?
Read Eternal Treblinka by Charles Patterson for a provocative discussion on the topic. No animals should be eaten. I was always taught in Hebrew School that Kosher killing is humane but this is a lie. No animal wants to die and all animals suffer horribly and none more so than in Kosher slaughter. I sent a link to undercover footage to a Kosher slaughterhouse to my father and he gave up meat. I titled the subject line, “See how Jews treat their animals.” It’s not kind at all.
There is no such thing as humane slaughter. There is no polite way to kill someone. It doesn’t matter how they are raised. They all want to live and they do not want to die. I also recommend Peaceable Kingdom, The Journey Home—an incredible documentary by Tribe of Heart. www.tribeofheart.org