slaughtered animals has been associated with anti-semitism for a long, long, long time”. And even scientific evidence is challenged as expressed by Alan of Cardiff: “Can I ask what you mean by scientific evidence? Political or ideological pressure?” and Harry(?) who asserted that “This is again this is a difficult thing these days because you can honestly scientifically prove anything almost that you want depending on how you carry it out.” Harry (from Cardiff) said: “but what I think you would find among a group of people who have been brought up with the idea of kosher slaughter is that they will always be suspicious of the argument that there is something wrong with this method of slaughter.” In Europe the same issues discussed in Israel were also discussed with similar results. There was mixed opinions regarding the utility of stunning and whether it itself introduces a painful element. Many participants viewed stunning as intrinsically painful and not accomplishing the goal of reducing the animal‟s pain. Here too it was pointed out (by Harry of Cardiff) that maybe all the facts are not know by the group when he stated “Surely the point is this, is that it is essentially none of us have the real facts before us, we can go around and around in circles.” There was also a general agreement that religious practices should be resistant to change. The notion was raised by some that shechita is a more “natural” method of slaughtering and that more natural means of stunning, such as an adrenalin shot, can be used. In general, participants declared that animal welfare was not a factor in their choice to eat or not eat kosher or in their other food consumption choices. Veal and foie gras were noticeable exceptions with some people avoiding them for animal welfare reasons. One reason animal welfare may not be an issue is because the most common behaviour is to not think about slaughter at all at the time of purchasing meat. Meron (Tel Aviv) explained: “I am concerned with animal welfare but it does not interfere with my choice of meat. The only effect on my choice is whether it tastes good.” And Ram (Tel Aviv) said: “When I eat meat I try not to think about it. I do mind about how the animals are gown up and treated while they are alive and I'm less concerned about how they get slaughtered, … I cannot think of an example of a meat that I would not eat it because of the way it is slaughtered.”
Points for further study 1) Anecdotally in one-on-one conversations it appears that the aversion to stunning in Europe may carry two undercurrents - the above stated suspicions of the motivations, and that the methods of stunning carry negative associations with methods used by Nazis. We think that this second issue should be further explored. 2) Post-cut stunning was not raised or discussed. Knowledge and attitudes towards this practice should be researched.
20