Jewish law, you may or may not know, prohibits hunting except in extreme cases where the choice is to hunt or die (an example might be if you are lost in the woods and unable to find any other food). As for kosher slaughter of animals, it is the most humane method used. The knife of the shochet (kosher slaughterer) must be smooth, sharper than a scapel, and nick free so that no pain is felt. If you have ever cut yourself with a very sharp, nick free new knife, you will understand this. I have, and there is no pain for at least a few seconds. Since the animal is slaughtered with such a knife and with one smooth stroke, the animal does not feel the cut. Additionally, since the stroke is made across the animal's wind pipe, the corodid arteries, and the jugular vien, the animal looses consiousness before any pain can be felt.
"Objection has sometimes been raised that the process is cruel [shechita is banned in Switzerland]. However, the process, according to scientific opinion, brings about instant death with the least pain. The severance of the carotid arteries and the jugular vein by one swift movement reults in the immediate loss of consciousness." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, 15th ed. 6:969 quoted in Why Kosher? An Anthology of Answers)
The shochet must be a learned and pious man. A story I once read about a shochet goes something like this: The old shochet had retured and the rabbi had to help choose a new one. When one of the people in the town, a friend of the rabbi's asked about the candidate the rabbi had seen today, asked about the new potential shochet. The rabbi shook his head. "Did he check the knife for sharpness and nicks?" The rabbi nodded. "Did he slaugter with one smooth, clean stroke?" The rabbi nodded again. "Did he say the proper blessing?" The rabbi nodded. "Did he drain the blood and check the lungs?" The rabbi again nodded. "So, what is the problem?" asked his friend. "The old shochet used to cry afterwards" replied the rabbi. That is the ideal shochet, one who not only follows the proper proceedures in slaugtering the animal, but whom is sensitive and not blood thirsty, who knows that the eating of flesh is a consession. (source of the story is unknown, if you know, please e-mail me so I can properly credit the source)
Jewish law, respecting the life of all animals, even those whom we are permitted to eat, teaches us that one should only eat meat when one has a desire for meat (law found in Deut). This means that we should not take eating meat lightly, but should eat it only when we have the urge. For me, that means I eat meat about 2 times per month.
You might also want to visit What makes a chicken kosher part of the Empire Kosher web site. It tells how the chickens are raised and that they slaughtered acording to Jewish law. You will note that they are not fed other chickens or meat, and that they are not stacked up in cages as are non-kosher birds, as well as many other things.
Contrast this with the methods used by non-kosher facilites:
"Many chickens are still alive when entering the scalding tank. One study found nearly 25 percent of the birds were conscious on entering the scalding tank. The overwhelming majority of the broilers do not have their necks cut efficiently. Adequate neck cutting is opposed by the poultry industry on the basis it would cause problems for the automatic disembowelment of the birds." (John David, British Vegetarian Socieity as quoted in quoted in Why Kosher? An Anthology of Answers)
It should be noted, that Jewish law forbids tzar baalei chaim, cruel treatment of animals. That is why Empire lets the chickens run around, for example. I wish there were Jewish cattle establishments so that all the beef in the US would be similarly raised... free range is best and herbivores were not meant to eat animal byproducts.
