Only a Jew specially trained for shechita - a shochet - can perform shechita. He is required to study for a number of years and is examined, in theory and practice, in the laws of shechita, animal anatomy and pathology. He serves an apprenticeship with an experienced shochet before becoming fully qualified. The position of shochet, as a G‑d-fearing person of integrity, is a respected one in the Jewish community.
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Ronald
Finland
June 24, 2015
Where is written that we have too let chicken be slaughtered by a shochet? What if for practical reason you have to do it yourself? Living in a remote area for instance. Reply
Eliezer Zalmanov
for Chabad.org
May 18, 2015
Re: Shomer Shabbat
If you and others know that he isn't Shomer Shabbat then it isn't really a private matter. But unless your suspicions are based on fact, how can you be certain about it?
Regarding women as schochtim, while according to halacha there are some opinions that allow it, in practice it is only permitted under very specific circumstances.
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Anonymous
london
May 17, 2015
Battery reared chickens This does not answer my question. How is poultry reared prior to slaughter? Thank you Reply
Anonymous
May 3, 2015
I know a schochet who definitely seems to know halacha and checks the knives with so much care and love yet I don't know if he is Shomer Shabat , he might be shomer shabat in public but I doubt in private. Does halacha require the person to be shomer shabat? I also heard of woman performing shchita in some morrocan communities, is this acceptable? Reply
deanna
london
June 5, 2014
battery produced poultry please can someone tell me how the chickens we buy in our local kosher butcher are reared. I bought some eggs once and it said on the box battery reared. Does this apply to chickens as well? I hope not. We get plenty of information on slaughter but not about conditions before that. Thank you Reply
Re: It is not written anywhere explicitly that fowl must be slaughtered by a Shochet. Like many of the laws of the Torah, this detail was derived using the tools of Halachic exegesis.
The verse in Leviticus 17:13 reads, "And any man... who traps a quarry of a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, and sheds its blood, he shall cover it [the blood] with dust". The Rabbis understood the juxtaposition of birds to animals in this context to imply that the same slaughtering process applies to both. Just as an animal requires ritual slaughtering by a certified Shochet, so do fowl.