JEWISH SLAUGHTER
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Duchess- of Hamilton states that Professor IOein's film was a " reproduction," ,not a " faked production," of a Jewish slaughtering. The pictures themselves show that it was a travesty of a. Jewfish,operation, and suggest why per- mission was refused to a Jew who asked that he _might be present during the filming. The Duchess states that to prepare the animals for the cut they are just thrown on. to the floor." Unbiased observers, possessing qualifications to which the Duchess can lay no claim, have stated that the animals roll or fall, generally on to a padded mattress, and that, in any event, they are cast so skilfully as to avoid pain. Now on several occasions these trained observers, of their own initiative, have searched the carcases of "'thrown " animals for bruises, and have stated that none could be found. Fancy a heavy beast being thrown on to the ground, and yet not receiving a single bruise on the part which receives the shock !
In the same irresponsible spirit and with even greater exaggeration, the Duchess states that, after the cut, a period of seven minutes elapses before unconsciousness supervenes. Specialist after specialist, unbiased and selected solely because of the high qualifications they possessed, have reported that their long-protracted tests and observations disclosed that unconsciousness from which the animals never recovered ensued practically immediately after the cut had been made.
If the Duchess were only reasonable, she might well con- sider whether a series of physiologists and surgeons, persons not a bit interested either pro or con, viewing and testing (right up-to-date) the Jewish method, would be likely, working independently and at different dates, to come to the same definite and favourable conclusions (so different to her own) unless they had real and serious grounds for so reporting.
It is only by ignoring, as she invariably does, the whole of this mass of scientific evidence that she can hope to persuade the public that our method is cruel in its preliminaries, and imposes on the unfortunate beastS a lingering death.
lf, as the Duchess states, the animals are thrown on to ground and left in pain for seven minutes after the cut, is it likely that Professor Lovatt Evans, who watched the real Jewish slaughter in operation, would have written (April 9th, 1929) : " I should be happy to think thgt_my oVin end were likely to be as swift and painless as the end of these cattle killed in this way undoubtedly is:'—I am, Sir, &c.,
CHARLES H. L. EMANUEL
(Hon. Secretary, Shechita Committee, Board of Deputies of British Jews).
23 Finsbury Square, London, E.C. 2.
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