melville, n.y. | The federal government is investigating kosher slaughterhouses and suppliers for possible antitrust practices, according to a lawyer for one of the firms.
AgriProcessors Inc., the world’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, received a grand jury subpoena requesting documents and was cooperating with the investigation, attorney Nathan Lewin said June 30.
“It has been told that neither the corporation, nor any corporate officer or employee is presently a target of the investigation,” Lewin said in a statement.
Exactly how many slaughterhouses and suppliers were involved in the probe was not immediately clear. Lewin said a number of meatpackers had received subpoenas.
The U.S. Department of Justice did not return a phone call for comment, and a telephone number listed for AgriProcessors was out of service.
Based in Iowa, AgriProcessors employs about 700 people. Trained rabbis at the plant slaughter cows at a rate of about one every three minutes. The meat is sold under the brands Iowa’s Best Beef, Rubashkin’s and Aaron’s Best.
The slaughterhouse became the focus of controversy two years ago when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, made public an undercover videotape showing steers walking or bellowing up to three minutes after their throats were slit. The video also showed AgriProcessors using a controversial method for slaughtering cattle — turning the animal upside down and pulling out its trachea after its throat had been slit.
The group claimed the video proved the animals were conscious and victims of cruel and inhumane treatment. Company officials have said that PETA’s claims were misguided and that the video depicted only the involuntary movements animals make after death.
Recently, an expert in slaughtering practices visited the AgriProcessors plant after more than a year and a half of pressure from PETA and found it had “made a lot of improvements.”
The plant, whose kosher practices are monitored by the Orthodox Union, has instituted a quality-assurance lab, built a room for processing meat and has improved its handling of animals, said Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University who visited AgriProcessors.
The OU is hoping Grandin’s findings will put some of the complaints to bed.
“I don’t know if people know about this yet, but I hope those who were concerned will be satisfied with that. They should be,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, rabbinic administrator of the OU’s kosher division, who took part in Grandin’s visit.
Some observers say Grandin’s findings may indeed take the wind out of PETA’s sails. But PETA’s Bruce Friedrich insisted that the allegations against AgriProcessors “should impact on people’s behavior.”
“It’s a black eye on the kosher certification process,” he said.
The Orthodox Union says the practice of removing the trachea after the initial cut has been discontinued, and insists that all the meat that left the plant was kosher.
But the controversy over the plant doesn’t end there. The Forward newspaper recently reported that workers at the plant are underpaid, undertrained and exploited. In response, AgriProcessors took out an ad in the Forward defending its practices.
The Conservative movement, for its part, has established a joint committee of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly to investigate the complaints about working conditions at AgriProcessors.
Rabbi Morris Allen, who convened the Conservative group, says part of the reason for the concern is “the fear that people will find any excuse to avoid keeping kosher.
“The production of something that is kosher should be done in a way that is, so to speak, kosher in and of itself,” he says. “Workers’ rights are a concern of the Torah and should continue to be a concern of the Jewish people to this day.’
A spokeswoman for the Reform movement said that, while the movement has guidelines regarding the ethical treatment of animals, the movement has not been involved in any efforts relating to AgriProcessors.
The Associated Press and JTA contributed to this report.