Concern in France: severe shortage of meat for Holidays

Shortage of meat for the holidays in France: a shortage of beef is expected for the holidays due to the tightening of the requirements of veterinarians contrary to Jewish law.

Hagaon Rabbi Yiremiahu Cohen, Av Beis Din of Paris and Rabbi of Adas Israel Congregation and a member of the Presidency of the Council of European Rabbis, said today to Behadrey Haredim: "We are very concerned about the situation, there will be a severe shortage in the supply of kosher meat for the holidays and decided to import meat from Poland and Ireland.

"I personally visited Poland last week in slaughter houses and despite the fight against shechita taking place there as well, slaughterhouses are working according to halacha and we'll import meat for the holidays."

"What happens is that there is an ongoing struggle of the SPCA about shechita, and despite lobbying we have been using, the situation gets worse."

Recently a letter from the animal rights activist, a well-known figure in France, was published to ban shechita, and Rabbi Cohen says: "This letter serves to add fuel to the fire.

"Veterinarians have decided to make it harder for shechita: they come regularly to the slaughterhouse and oversee the shechita, initially they demanded that after shechita they shoot the beast, then they demanded we close their eyes before slaughter and more. Their presence causes a marked slowdown in the rate of slaughter, causing shortages. Besides that, many slaughterhouses closed their doors for us because of the struggles and fines of the Veterinary Department.

"We contacted officials who have been claiming for some time that the fight is against the Muslims, but history shows that every city where Nazis ym"s arrived, the first thing they did was to ban the slaughter, claiming that it causes suffering to animals. Obviously burning people in Auschwitz is not considered suffering by them".

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!