Tza'ar ba'alei chayim

Tza'ar ba'alei chayim (צער בעלי חיים), literally "suffering of living creatures", is a Jewish commandment which bans causing animals unnecessary suffering. This concept is not clearly enunciated in the written Torah, but was accepted by the Talmud as being a biblical mandate. It is linked in the Talmud from the biblical law requiring people to assist in unloading burdens from animals (). Tza'ar is an (ancient) Hebrew word for "suffering" and is used in this context with the meaning of "suffering that does not advance some legitimate human good", according to The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality. Ba'alei chayim is an expression literally meaning "owners of life", which is used in the Talmud for "animals". Shechitah In traditional Jewish law, kosher animals may be eaten if killed using the slaughter method known as shechitah, where the animal is killed by having its throat cut swiftly using an extremely sharp and specially designed knife. Many rabbis assert that these regulations were put in place to reduce the animal's suffering and to ensure that the animal has the easiest possible death. The design of the kosher knives as well as regulation relating to how the cut is made have been seen to greatly reduce or completely eliminate reaction from the kosher cut. Even modern-day scientists critical of shechita agree that it greatly improved welfare at slaughter in historical periods, though experts disagree regarding shechita's efficacy compared to modern slaughter methods. In 2000, the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards banned the common slaughter method of "shackling and hoisting" (pulling a conscious animal into the air with a chain before slaughter). Rabbis Joel Roth and Elliot Dorff wrote a responsum on this topic which concluded that shackling and hoisting "unquestionably constitutes a violation of Jewish laws that forbid us to cause undue pain to animals." According to the Shulkhan Aruch, "anything that is necessary for medical purposes, or for anything else, is exempt from the prohibition of causing suffering to animals".