While I’m not an expert on halachah, I’ve been told that even the Gemara discusses the “dead animal walking” issue, and describes instances where the animal gets downright out of control. My concerns center around the inverted shechita and the “trachea pull”.

As I’ve been told, the rabbinical point of view is that flipping the animal on its back is for two reasons: first, it disorients the animal so that it becomes less aware of what will be happening, and second, and most important, to insure that the halachah regarding undue pressure during the cut is not violated, which would render the meat treif. I contend, however, that the disorientation caused by being flipped on its back results in an adrenaline rush that would have just the opposite effect … making the animal more aware, and also causing a delay in insentience, since the head would be bleeding out more slowly without the benefit of gravity. Unfortunately, the relatively painless shechita (done in one stroke with a very long, very sharp knife that is checked after each cut to insure there are/were no nicks) is offset by a worker yanking out the animal’s trachea, which would definitely cause pain if there was any bit of sentience in the animal, as it involves tearing rather than cutting. My nephew, a rabbinical graduate of YU, does not remember any references to “trachea pulls” when he studied Hil. Shechita. I posit that, given a halachic ruling that the animal is considered dead when the cut is made and blood issues from the wound, this was something added by Rubashkin to increase productivity in some way down the line. However, if, as I contend, the animal is sentient at that time, the “trachea pull” is most assuredly cruel and should be banned.

Dr. Grandin’s website outlines more humane methods of performing shechita than those done in the U.S. Note also that when animals are “shech’ed” specifically for a seudah (as happens often in Eretz Yisrael), they are being held and are standing upright (although, for the most part, they are usually sheep/lamb, which are smaller animals who, according to Dr. Grandin, are insentient within 15 seconds, much faster than larger animals).

Reading over the five recommendations of the surprisingly respectful PETA letter to the OU, there is nothing that is unworkable. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, though.

Hear is a link to an interesting treatise by Dr. Grandin and an associate. It’s a very good read.

http://www.grandin.com/ritual/kosher.slaugh.html