CONTINUES TO CUT THE THROATS OF FULLY CONSCIOUS ANIMALS IN THE NAME OF RELIGION

For Hardwick's to carry out and profit from Kosher (fully conscious) slaughter and Halal slaughter is unconscionable. Hardwick's has chosen to completely ignore this petition thinking it will go away. Hardwick's hasn't gone public in relation to carrying out Halal slaughter on fully conscious animals. Unlike Kosher slaughter, many Muslims will accept stunning prior to cutting the throats of animals, yet Hardwick's seems to think the public doesn't have a right to know. The barbaric 'fully conscious' slaughter of Australian animals on Australian soil all in the name of 'religion' must be banned.

Hardwicks is a wholesale meat supplier offering chilled and frozen Halal (NO MENTION OF ANIMALS BEING STUNNED PRIOR TO HALAL SLAUGHTER ON HARDWICKS WEBSITE) or Kosher beef and lamb. It also supplies offal products both to international and domestic customers. Hardwicks is an Australian, family owned company, started in 1973 by Gary and Vicki Hardwick with an aim to provide premium quality beef and lamb product with a sincere and satisfying service. In 1979 the business was relocated to Kyneton in central Victoria

The slaughter of fully conscious animals and the words 'animal welfare' just don't go hand in hand:

Hardwicks have also incorporated Animal Welfare into their Quality System, as they have adopted best practices for handling livestock within the industry. Accredited animal welfare officers are onsite to monitor these processes. Hardwicks are driving the paddock to plate approach to food processing by maintaining standards through every step of the process.

See Hardwicks website:

http://www.hardwicks.com.au/qa.html

Kosher is a ritual slaughter that sees animals killed without any stunning. The evidence of pain and suffering inflicted upon animals slaughtered Kosher is extremely overwhelming and disturbing.

THE PROCEDURE:

Courtesy of :

Please see below link for more details

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita#Procedure

The animal may not be stunned prior to the procedure, as is common practice in non-kosher modern animal slaughter since the first half of the twentieth century

The procedure, which must be performed by a shochet (Hebrew: שוחט‎‎), involves severing the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins and vagus nerve in a swift action using a special knife (see below) with an extremely sharp blade. This is done with the intention of causing a rapid drop in blood pressure in the brain and loss of consciousness, to render the animal insensitive to pain and to exsanguinate in a prompt and precise action.[4][5] The procedure may be performed with the animal either lying on its back (שחיטה מוונחת, shechita munachat) or standing (שחיטה מעומדת, shechita me'umedet).

To fulfill the basic law of shechita, the majority of both the trachea and esophagus (windpipe and food pipe) of a mammal, or the majority of either one of these in the case of birds, must be incised with a back and forth motion without violating one of the five major prohibited techniques (see below), or various other detailed rules.

It is forbidden to slaughter an animal and its young on the same day. An animal's "young" is defined as either its own offspring, or another animal that follows it around, even if of another species.[citation needed]

The animal's blood may not be collected in a bowl, a pit, or a body of water, as these resemble ancient forms of idol worship.

If the shochet accidentally slaughters with a knife dedicated to idol worship, he must remove an amount of meat equivalent to the value of the knife and destroy it. If he slaughtered with such a knife on purpose, the animal is forbidden as not kosher.

CRUELTY CONCERNS:

Courtesy of RSPCA Australia:

http://kb.rspca.org.au/what-is-kosher-slaughter-in-australia_117.html

IS RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER LEGAL IN AUSTRALIA: Yes it is.

Courtesy of RSPCA Australia:

http://kb.rspca.org.au/Is-religious-slaughter-legal-in-Australia_276.html

Courtesy of Animals Australia:

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/ritual_slaughter.php

Courtesy of PETA:

PETA REVEALS EXTREME KOSHER CRUELTY:

WARNING VERY GRAPHIC:

http://www.peta.org/features/agriprocessors/agriprocessors-photos/​

http://www.peta.org/features/agriprocessors/

WHAT ONE PETA INVESTIGATOR WITNESSED WILL SHOCK YOU:

PLEASE READ BELOW:

http://www.peta.org/features/agriprocessors/agriprocessors-investigator-notes/

Courtesy of Daily Mail UK:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581918/Meat-cattle-slaughtered-cruel-kosher-ceremony-high-street-burger.html

Courtesy of The Australian:

At least 15 abattoirs in Australia servicing the domestic halal and kosher meat market have permission from state governments to slit the throats of fully conscious livestock.

Under the nationally adopted guidelines for the ritual slaughter, cattle have their throats cut while they are in an upright position with their head and body restrained.

After the throat is cut, the animal must then be stunned with a captive-bolt pistol.

For the religious slaughter of sheep, the main arteries and veins in the neck must be completely severed to allow the sheep to bleed to death.

Biosecurity SA executive director Will Zacharin said nine abattoirs in South Australia were accredited to slaughter livestock without prior stunning.

"The Australian standard provides for and includes provisions for ritual slaughter without pre-stunning," he said.

Mr Zacharin said the animals lost consciousness in one to two seconds after the arteries were cut.

"It's not like those horrific things we saw on Four Corners," Mr Zacharin said, in reference to the ABC documentary on May 30 that exposed the cruel practices used in Indonesian abattoirs, triggering the suspension of cattle exports.

In Victoria, three abattoirs are licensed to undertake religious slaughter while in Western Australia two abattoirs are accredited to provide ritually slaughtered meat for the domestic market.

The NSW Food Authority said there was one red-meat abattoir permitted to perform ritual slaughter without prior stunning to service the kosher market.

Queensland does not permit any ritual slaughter of animals.

READ FULL DETAILS BELOW:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/ritual-animal-killing-routine-in-australia/story-fn59niix-1226080205383

Denmark, Sweden and Norway as well as other European Nations have banned the fully conscious slaughter of animals, known as ritual slaughter. New Zealand banned Kosher on cruelty grounds in 2010, however, the Jewish community was able to overturn this ban on religious grounds.

Courtesy of National Alternative:

Full of extremely informative information including evidence that ritual slaughter without  prior stunning is barbaric & opposing views.

https://www.natalt.org/2012/03/29/animal-cruelty-and-kosherhalal-slaughter/

Courtesy of the Netivist:

https://netivist.org/debate/kosher-and-halal-slaughter-cruel

New Zealand bans Kosher slaughter on cruelty grounds:

Courtesy of the Jewish Post:

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/New-Zealand-bans-Kosher-slaughter

Denmark bans ritual slaughter:

http://theconversation.com/danish-halal-and-kosher-ban-leaves-religious-groups-with-nowhere-to-turn-23392

No animal on Australian soil should be slaughtered while fully conscious. The Australian government is responsible for allowing animals to be slaughtered in such ways and can, at anytime, ban ritual slaughter.