Animal-rights Expert Endorses Kosher Plant

A leading expert on the humane treatment of animals is giving a stamp of approval to the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse after previously criticizing the plant.

Temple Grandin, an animal science professor, issued her endorsement last week, after visiting the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. The plant, owned and run by Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim, has been the subject of criticism since 2004, when an animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, released video footage from inside the slaughterhouse that showed cows going to a loud and violent death. When Grandin initially viewed the video, she said it was the “most disgusting thing I’d ever seen.”

After her June 27 visit to Postville, Grandin stood by her original statements but said that AgriProcessors appears to have improved its slaughter process.

“What I saw there today was working very well,” she told the Forward after her full-day visit, for which she was paid as a consultant by AgriProcessors.