Creating Winners and Losers in a Free Market

Why is the government destroying Canada's kosher slaughter industry?

Governments just can’t help themselves. Some bureaucrat or politician wakes up one morning convinced that the world needs changing, and manipulating the regulatory code can be a fast and effective way to get the job done. The fact that such manipulation effectively ignores the democratic legislative process is a feature rather than a bug.

Here’s an excellent illustration. Observant Jews may only eat meat from animals slaughtered using the shechita process. Shechita involves killing an otherwise healthy animal with a single cut to the throat using a razor-sharp knife. The cut severs both the trachea and esophagus. For all practical purposes, the carotid arteries are also cut, instantly starving the brain of oxygen.

Like most governments, our own Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) prefers the kill be preceded by stunning - usually through a forceful strike to the forehead delivered by a captive bolt stun gun. The goal is to render the animal senseless to pain before the actual slaughter. However, since such an injury would invalidate an animal for kosher consumption, Canadian law has long permitted kosher slaughter in licensed and inspected facilities.

Over the past year or so, CFIA added new post-slaughter monitoring protocols to all “ritual slaughter without pre-slaughter stunning” - ostensibly to ensure that the animal is fully unconscious before processing can begin.

To be sure, there’s nothing in the language or enforcement of the new regulations that prevents the practice of Jewish slaughter. That would be plainly illegal in Canada. Licensed facilities are still perfectly welcome to avoid stun guns as long as they incorporate the new protocols into their operations.

The problem - as is well known to senior CFIA officials - is that the regulations introduce monitoring responsibilities that will add time to the product processing workflow. In an expensive, labor-intensive commercial environment, reducing output by even one or two animals a day can be enough to wipe out a profitable business model.

The changes have already led to dramatic reductions in domestic kosher beef production. At this point, 70% of the Canadian market is currently supplied by imports. There's at least one Charter challenge pending but, barring a miracle, the remaining 30% will follow in the very near future. A healthy, profitable, and long-standing industry has pretty much disappeared in the space of a few months.

What’s in It for the Animals?

Will all this economic and social disruption measurably improve the lives and deaths of vulnerable cattle? I can’t imagine how.

For one thing, you can be sure that kosher consumers won’t stop eating meat. Instead, beef will be imported from international sources, often from jurisdictions where animal handling practices don’t meet Canadian standards. Along with that sourcing shift, thousands of good Canadian jobs in the food handling and agriculture industries will permanently disappear. The only change the public might notice will be the hike in retail pricing

But even Canadian livestock shouldn’t be too quick to breath any happy sighs of relief. It’s by no means clear that the preferred mechanical stunning methods are actually more humane. The recent “Assessment of stun quality at commercial slaughter in cattle shot with captive bolt” study (Cambridge University Press - 01 January 2023) found that stunning failed an average of 12.5% of the time. In other words, “Despite being shot accurately, 13.6% bulls were inadequately stunned compared with 3.8% other cattle.”

A failed stunning attempt will almost certainly result in the animal remaining conscious or regaining consciousness during slaughter, leading to unnecessary suffering (besides the added pain caused by the stun shot itself). At best, then, even experienced and conscientious slaughterhouse workers are likely to cause significant and prolonged suffering in one out of every eight animals they kill. And do you think all slaughterhouse workers are experienced and conscientious?