From Forward:
Meet Hannah and Philip Schein, undercover investigators for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Now, for the first time, they are going public with their identities.Since 2002, the Scheins have taken on about 20 undercover cases, as well as others they have conducted publicly. The targets of their stings have run the gamut from an egg farm managed by Trappist monks, to a Canadian bear-baiting operation that has supplied fur to the British Royal Guards, to songstress Beyoncé Knowles, once an enthusiastic wearer of fur.
But thanks to their background and their knowledge of the laws of kashrut, Hannah, 33, and Philip, 43, have come to specialize in investigating kosher slaughterhouses. Indeed, PETA had not investigated kosher operations until the Scheins came on board; since then, the group has been involved in about eight such cases. Philip in particular has been credited with becoming an expert on kosher slaughter.
I know many people feel very strongly about animal welfare and therefore oppose kosher slaughter, but as I have written before, I cannot see how this could be more cruel than the slow and painful death animals suffer when shot by hunters in the wild. And knowing PETA, my guess is that they like to target the kosher abattoirs because cattle soaked in blood makes dramatic pictures that generate more paying members.
Thanks for posting this. One reason to expose cruelty at these kosher slaughterhouses is because doing so actually leads to animal welfare reforms. Following the release of video footage in which still conscious cows had their tracheas ripped out, AgriProcessors (the world's largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse) was pressured to change its ways; the Orthodox Union (a leading kosher certification agency) has acknowledged that the PETA video helped bring that about. Furthermore, after the investigators mentioned in this article videotaped the inhumane "shackling and hoisting" method of kosher slaughter at a South American abbatoir, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel announced plans for a phase-out of shackling and hoisting. Visit www.HumaneKosher.com to view videos and for more info.
Horrible things happen to animals in kosher and nonkosher slaughterhouses. The best way to ensure we don't contribute to that cruelty is to go vegetarian. But if the Orthodox Union and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel see the footage and acknowledge the need for change, clearly the work of these investigators is serving an essential function.