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Citation of Meat Packer Raises Issue of Feds Judging Religious Rules

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday?s Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited Agriprocessors' Postville, Iowa meat packing plant for violations of the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act within days of PETA filing a complaint along with an undercover video it had taken of the firm?s kosher slaughter methods. The citation raises interesting questions of the extent to which the government may decide what are the religious rules of kosher slaughter.

7 USC 702(b) provides that it is consistent with the Humane Slaughter Act for slaughter to be carried out "in accordance with the ritual requirements of the Jewish faith or any other religious faith that prescribes a method of slaughter whereby the animal suffers loss of consciousness ... by ... the simultaneous and instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries..." The PETA video shows slaughterers making a second cut to a cow's neck without rabbinical supervision of that cut. Apparently the theory of the citation is that the second cut is inconsistent with kosher slaughter and therefore not within the protection of the statute. However, Menachem Lubinsky, a spokesman for Agriprocessors says a second cut when slaughtering cattle is permitted by kosher slaughter rules. The USDA citation led to no fine or other penalties.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on September 06, 2008 (boomark / email).