How do Karaites shecht?

Question

Simlah Chadasha writes (2:25) that those groups of people that do not accept the validity of the Oral Torah such as צדוקים (Sadducees) is acceptable, because even though all laws of kosher slaughter are recorded in the Oral Law and no mention of them is made in the Written Law, and the Sadduccees rejected the Oral Law; nevertheless, since it is clear that the laws of kosher slaughter are contained outside of the Written Law*, the slaughter of a Sadducee is acceptable (if we have established that this particular person knows the laws -- see there) because they have the same tradition of slaughter laws that we do.
What is a little confusing is that at the end of that halacha, after writing that the shechita of Sadducees is acceptable, Simla Chadasha writes "therefore, the shechita of Karaites is not acceptable." [emphasis mine]

What follows is from my rebbi's notes on Simla Chadasha, answering this question:

The Karaites are different from the Sadducees and the Bitusim. While the latter are allowed to slaughter for a Jew, if they are being adequately supervised, the Karaites are not. The Karaites who lived at the time of the Simlah Chadashah, did not accept the oral laws, even those pertaining to shechitah. As a result they were not considered to be בר זביחה and that which they slaughtered is neveilah. Once a person is not a ‫בר זביחה‬ the meat this person slaughtered is forbidden regardless of the level of certification. The meat is neveilah even if every action of this person were observed to be correct and the knife was inspected prior to the shechitah and found to be perfect.

Question 1: Is the above quote accurate? How do Karaites slaughter animals to avoid the prohibitions of neveilah נבילה (Deut. 14:21) and treifah טריפה (Ex. 22:30)?
Question 2: How would a Karaite explain Deut. 12:21, "וזבחת...כאשר צויתיך" "and you shall slaughter...how I commanded you" -- where is that צווי if it was not written down anywhere in the Torah?

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* Because it is written (Deut. 12:21) "וזבחת...כאשר צויתיך" "and you shall slaughter...how I commanded you." The problem is that there is no mention of a method of slaughter recorded anywhere in Tanach. Therefore, that this verse teaches that Hashem taught Moshe about the method of kosher slaughter on Mount Sinai. (Chullin 28a, SC 1:1)

Answer 1

By way of background, I am a Karaite Jew (from an actual Karaite family). I run a Karaite Jewish blog (ABlueThread.com); and I actually have an entire article on this topic.

See my post here: http://wp.me/p43Sek-sm

And here is an explanatory video: http://youtu.be/gARsacJ5oWs?t=2m

To Summarize:

Karaites require completely cutting of all four signs (two veins, windpipe and gullet) - the Rabbinic tradition only requires cutting of at least two signs.

In the middle ages, and even today, there are Karaites who won't eat meat slaughtered by Rabbanites because of this difference -and others, including the fact that Karaites deems slaughtering a pregnant animal to be forbidden (whereas Rabbanites do not).

I hope this was helpful.

Answer 2

In As it is Written: A Brief Case for Karaism we have the following description of shechitah:

To attempt to prove the existence of the Oral Law the students of the Talmud often quote Deuteronomy 12:21, which states, "...then you shall kill of your herd and your flock, which YHWH has given you, as I have commanded you..." The Rabbis claim that the phrase "as I have commanded you" refers to the parts of the Oral Law which explain the proper methods of slaughtering an animal. Indeed there are many requirements laid down in the Talmud as to the "proper" way of killing an animal; however, these are the customs of those writing the Talmud rather than the laws of God. The most misleading aspect of the claim that this passage refers to an alleged Oral Law is that it ignores the context of the passage. Not more than 5 verses earlier we see that the Torah itself dictates how we are to slaughter animals: "Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it upon the earth like water" (Deuteronomy 12:16). From this, we learn that to properly slaughter an animal we must do it in a manner that pours its blood on the ground — as opposed to letting it harden in the veins of the slaughtered animal (e.g. by strangulation). This reading is confirmed by the lines directly succeeding the verse in question: "Only be sure that you eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and you may not eat the life with the meat.." (Deuteronomy 12:23). In fact, this verse states that the only requirement of slaughter is that we do not eat the blood.