outweighs an animal's right to have a humane death. I don't feel (or think) that it does. Not that anyone's opinion really matters, when it comes to religious exemptions.
I would posit that Abrahamic religions aren't equipped at all to deal with ethical questions of this nature - let's not forget that the Torah (and OT) commands all kinds of animal sacrifice, all of which has admittedly long since been abandoned (except by a small group of Jews in Ethiopia, since repatriated to Israel). Yet, with this history of ritual blood sacrifice - none of which would be permissible under current law in any industrialized nation, including Israel - one could make the argument that Judaic and Christian mores regarding the treatment of animals are the least enlightened of the world religions.
U.S. law does allow the ritual sacrifice by Voodoo practitioners - but it also regulates it. Similarly, the Navajo and some Pueblo tribes are allowed the use of peyote, but the rest of America isn't. Meanwhile, Rastafarians aren't allowed even sacramental use of ganja by adults, but Catholics can give wine to their children. In short, the carve-outs are inconsistent across the board, betraying an ad hoc approach that betrays little deep thought on the 'meat' of the respective matters, as't'were; it doesn't seem to matter if the practice being carved out (or not) is normal in the bell-curve sense (or not). Frankly, political clout seems to be the determining factor - even in the case of peyote, which was legalized exclusively for the Native American Church in the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, hot on the heels of the AIM.
Seen in this light, carve-outs for kosher meats are less a matter of ethics than of politics. Who has a stake, politically? Mega slaughterhouses. Agribusiness. All those visions of rabbis personally overseeing the humane slaughter of kosher meat are wrong. Instead, think 'Hormel'. The vast majority of kosher meat comes from the same slaughterhouses that the rest of us eat from, and that too often fail to meet the compassion requirement of Halacha, or the humane treatment requirements of government, here in the U.S. One can only imagine how animals are being treated in less animal-friendly nations. Other than cursory ritual, kosher meat is no different than non-kosher meat - except that when humane slaughter occurs, there is less adrenaline in the animal's blood. Indeed, Halacha would seem to require that kosher facilities adopt the most humane methods available, rather than hanging onto minor details of traditions, merely for the sake of it.
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