Israel’s Chief Rabbi Forbids ‘Shackle and Hoist’ Kosher Slaughter

PETA’s recent undercover investigation of the largest slaughterhouse in Uruguay exposed that the facility was using the primitive and cruel “shackle and hoist” method for kosher slaughter.

This slaughterhouse is the largest foreign supplier of kosher meat to the U.S. and a major kosher meat exporter to Israel. Thanks to the PETA investigation, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has just announced that by 2011 it will no longer certify meat as kosher if it’s from a slaughterhouse that use “shackle and hoist”—that’s about 80 percent of the meat imported into Israel, so we’re not talking small potatoes!

This is a great step. Of course, the only way to know for sure that you are not supporting slaughterhouse cruelty is to go vegan. Plant-based foods are naturally kosher, and a vegan diet is in keeping with Jewish laws mandating that animals be treated with compassion and respect.

Written by Heather Moore