R. Dr. Engelbert was the Rabbi in St. Gallen at a time when there was a growing movement to consider Kosher slaughtering (Shechitah) cruel to animals. This volume is a response to this controversy.

"In 1855, the British Society for the Protection of Animals called for widespread slaughterhouse reform. Charging that current slaughtering practices forced animals to be aware of their own deaths, British animal protection advocates petitioned for mandatory stunning laws. Stunning practices at that time still were rudimentary, often relying on mallets or hammers to stun animals into unconsciousness. Therefore, scientists and politicians throughout England came to the defense of traditional slaughtering techniques, and the debates over stunning remained dormant in England for several decades.

There was, however, a slightly different outcome when Swiss animal protectionists made similar demands that same year. In 1855, the canton of Aargau - responding to pressure from animal protection societies there - passed legislation forbidding the slaughter of conscious animals. The canton exempted the Jewish communities of Endingen and Lengnau but rescinded this privilege 10 years later when it ruled that all slaughterers, regardless of religious affiliation, were to stun their animals before killing them."