3. Opinions and concerns on animal welfare issues
Introduction: Participants were invited to talk about their own conception of how Judaism views issues of animal welfare. Does religion have an opinion on the subject and what does it say? They were also asked about shechita and animal welfare. Does it conform with what they said religion says about animal welfare, why is shechita important, and why they specifically eat or do not eat kosher meat as it relates to animal welfare. Because within the context of the Dialrel project, 'stunning' is an important topic, this issue was introduced by the moderator when it was not already raised by participants. We expected this issue to be controversial because of public campaigns of animal welfare organizations against ritual slaughter without stunning. The participants of the FG are not religious authorities, but some did have a religious education and were thus not ignorant of the issues. In the particular area of religious slaughter most had more theoretical rather than practical knowledge. Religion and animal welfare It was frequently stated by the participants that Jews should take care of animals and that religious texts are explicit on this, and further that Jews should not behave like “heathens.” Alan from Cardiff stated “Right, there is a Jewish point of view right which says you look after your animal before you look after yourself.” There was a minority voice that thought that religion had no comment on animal welfare, such as Jean-Pierre from Bordeaux who in a debate on foie gras stated: “no we don‟t talk about animal welfare, this doesn‟t exists with us, no no”. He was roundly challenged by Laurent and Emilie. Laurent said: “I don‟t agree with what Jean-Pierre is saying, although I respect it…(..)Whether religion takes animal welfare into account, I‟ll say yes it does ! still, in the Torah and in all texts…. one has to respect animals!” Emilie continued: “I think that Laurent is right, that it is very important in Judaism, one cannot hit animals. And talking about stress, are ducks stressed, I think they are ! I really think that we have to be careful, and concerning foie gras, I disagree with Jean-Pierre, because it is a real issue today, is foie gras really kosher, everywhere.” Shechita and animal welfare It was nearly unanimous in the kosher focus groups that shechita was the “best” method of slaughter, preferable to any other method, including conventional and Halal. What is meant by “best”, however, was not always uniform. There were three broad explanations.
1) Shechita is intended to reduce the pain of the animal. This was a firmly held belief by many of the participants who felt that it can be scientifically explained. Michael from 17