Summarize the Inconsistencies Between How Animals Are Raised Today and Jewish Values?
As the previous examples indicate, the conditions under which animals are raised today are completely contrary to the Jewish ideals of compassion and the requirement to avoid tsa’ar ba’alei chayim . Instead of animals being free to graze on the Sabbath day to enjoy the beauties of creation, they are confined for all of their lives to darkened, crowded cells without air, natural light, or the ability to exercise. Whereas the Torah mandates that animals should be able to eat the products of the harvest as they thresh in the fields, today animals are given chemical fatteners and other additives in their food, based on computer programs. Where Judaism indicates consideration for animals by mandating that a strong and weak animal not be yoked together, veal calves spend their entire lives standing on slats, their necks chained to the sides, without sunlight, fresh air, or exercise. The pre-eminent 18th-century rabbinic authority, R. Ezekiel Landau asserted that the mere killing of an animal
