You remember Agriprocessors, right? You know, the kosher slaughterhouse whose practices turned out to be anything but kosher? The one that lost 76 percent of its employees in an immigration raid and that filed for bankruptcy last week?

Well, since Agriprocessors is (or, dare I say, was) the largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse in the world, the bankruptcy has led to a shortage of kosher meat. An article on www.israelnationalnews.com reports that, as a result, many Jewish Americans are eating more vegetarian meals.

Three of the five largest kosher beef slaughterhouses in the U.S. and the second-largest kosher beef supplier in South America are currently not operating. This is adding to the shortage and causing prices to escalate. In addition to troubles at Agriprocessors, operations at the nation's third-largest kosher slaughterhouse, North Star Beef in Minnesota, stopped several months ago after a fire, and the fifth largest facility in the U.S. (Local Pride, which we investigated in 2007 and is owned by the same people as Agriprocessors) stopped operations in October.

There's a solid case for Jewish vegetarianism in the first place, and the lawbreaking practices of Agriprocessors and its subsequent shutdown are even more reasons to have a vegetarian Shabbat. Many "meaty" recipes—even chopped "liver"!—can be made pareve (that's no meat, no dairy).

VegCooking.com, by the way, has a nice collection of Jewish recipes. I have personally made both the latkes and the stuffed zucchini and can attest to their yumminess. For more veganized traditional favorites, www.jewishveg.com is another great resource.

Mmm, vegan knishes … I might have to buy potatoes on the way home today.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

If you're looking for a truly scary haunt this Halloween, look no further than Postville, Iowa–based Agriprocessors. Seriously folks, it's a real house of horrors for all living creatures. The kosher slaughterhouse is severely lacking when it comes to humane treatment of animals and humans. Here's a perfect example from one of our undercover investigations:

You may remember that a few months back the slaughterhouse was busted because "76% of the 968 employees of Agriprocessors were using false or fraudulent Social Security numbers." This was the nation's largest single-site immigration raid. That's right, the slaughterhouse was almost entirely staffed by illegal immigrants who were exploited to do the dirty work—such as hacking into the throats of cows who were still conscious.

Now, Agriprocessors has something of its own to scream and writhe in pain about. According to the Des Moines Register, the slaughterhouse "faces nearly $10 million in civil penalties for repeated violations of Iowa's wage laws between Jan. 1, 2006 and June 30." And it appears that cattle slaughter at the plant has stalled—which translates into millions of dollars lost for the meat industry. You can check out the specific fines here.

According to the article, Iowa Labor Commissioner Dave Neil said, "Once again, Agriprocessors has demonstrated a complete disregard for Iowa law."

In addition to the $10 million in state fines, Agriprocessors is in even more trouble with the feds. A human resources employee pled guilty to conspiracy and identity theft charges, and the former CEO (and owner's son) Sholom Rubashkin was just arrested on similar charges. Heads are rolling at Agriprocessors, but for once they're not bovine heads.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Last week, PETA revealed shocking new undercover footage of cruelty to animals at AgriProcessors in Postville, Iowa, the world's largest kosher slaughterhouse. I'm thrilled to report that as a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a citation against AgriProcessors for violating the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.

PETA's video shows a worker making sawing cuts inside the gaping wounds in cows’ throats, after the shochet (religious slaughterer) has made the first cut and walked away. Federal law prohibits workers from making a second cut unless a shochet is supervising.

Temple Grandin, the world's foremost expert on slaughter methods, said the worker used a harsh "digging, gouging" motion on the second cut that would "definitely cause the animal pain" and is rarely necessary if the first cut is made properly. Grandin stated that the video "clearly showed that when they think nobody is looking, they do bad things in this plant."

AgriProcessors has clearly lost all support from Grandin. She recently said that there is "no point" to the visits. She added, "I've been in business 35 years, and I'm getting sick and tired of: They act good when you're there and they don't act good when your back is turned. They did the same thing for the rabbis they would do for me—put on a show."

Grandin isn't just all complaints—she has a plan to get rid of this cruel practice. Installing live-feed video cameras on the kill floor of the plant would help ensure that no animal is ever tortured at AgriProcessors again. Join PETA in backing Grandin's plan now!

Update: Just as I posted this entry, CNN reported that AgriProcessors and some of its executives have each been charged with more than 9,000 alleged violations of child labor laws. Cruelty to animals and alleged child labor! Looks like AgriProcessors is working overtime to win the award for "Most Despicable Company in America."

Posted by Carrie Ann Harris

I’ve got to say I wasn’t too shocked this morning when I read about a certain kosher slaughterhouse in a certain small town in Iowa being raided by the Feds over immigration violations. Yes, PETA’s old Postville, Iowa-based friend, Agriprocessors, has been busted yet again. As reported by USA Today, "76% of the 968 employees of Agriprocessors were using false or fraudulent Social Security numbers in connection with their employment." This raid was the largest of its kind. Ever. (Well, at least in the U.S.)

Why, you might be asking, was I not so shocked to learn of this raid? Agriprocessors is not exactly known for being an upstanding member of the corporate community. Nor is it known for its unwavering sense of right and wrong. You may recall that in 2004, a PETA undercover investigation revealed workers at this same facility ripping the tracheas out of live cows’ throats day after day. Or what about that time in 2007 that another PETA undercover investigation—at a facility owned by the same guy who owns Agriprocessors—documented employees tearing into conscious cows’ throats with meat hooks?

Oh, and there’s more. The United Food and Commercial Workers union states on its Web site that USDA documents “cite numerous food safety violations committed by Agriprocessors that may have increased the risk of food-borne illnesses to consumers.” And let’s not forget about the whole mis-labeling issue when an independent food testing laboratory that analyzed various Agriprocessors products revealed that one of its brands of turkey meat had a sodium content 339% higher than what was advertised on the nutrition label (and another brand was 138% higher). Then there was that incident in 2006 when Agriprocessors paid more than $600,000 to settle an Environmental Protection Agency complaint regarding its discharge of pollutants into the Postville water treatment facility. Joining the USDA and EPA in the band of government agencies recording Agriprocessors’ failures, OSHA (that’s the Occupational Health and Safety Agency) logs from this facility reveal five amputations along with dozens of other serious injuries, including broken bones, eye injuries and hearing loss; if that’s what the workers went through imagine what it was like being an cow or chicken at Agriprocessors!

Such a fine company.

Well, we’ve had it with Agriprocessors. Today, PETA fired off a letter to Chet Culver, governor of Iowa, asking that Agriprocessors be shut down once and for all. As the letter says: “Enough is enough.”

Three years ago, we went inside AgriProcessors slaughterhouse—the world's largest Kosher slaughterhouse—and uncovered close to 300 instances of inhumane slaughter. Workers at that slaughterhouse were ripping the tracheas out of fully conscious cows and watching them writhe in pools of their own blood. As usual when we uncover this kind of abuse, the company hemmed and hawed and tried to pretend that we were making a big deal out of nothing, but despite their unwillingness to accept responsibility for their actions, we had hoped that the widespread public outrage would convince the company that, even among meat-eaters, the treatment of farmed animals is a matter of serious concern that directly affects the bottom line of organizations which refuse to take it seriously. In 2006, the owners of AgriProcessors opened a new kosher slaughterhouse, Local Pride, in Gordon, Nebraska. Sadly, as this video shows, little has been done to help mitigate the suffering of the animals who pay the price for corporate greed. Click here to learn more. And if you’re unable to get all the way through this video without wincing, you can take a pledge to try out vegetarianism here.