Around 300 Cornish Cross chickens were found in crates on a busy Brooklyn intersection after falling off a delivery truck, with the rescuers thinking the chickens could have been destined for the Jewish pre-Yom Kippur ritual of Kapparot (atonement), the New York Daily News reported.
The chickens were found by the organization Animal Care Centers. Although 30 had died, some 253 were saved, with the owner of the slaughterhouse transporting them deciding not to rescue them, activist Katy Hansen said, the Daily News reported, adding that they think the chickens were meant for Kapparot.
The Jerusalem Post reached out to the Animal Care Centers for comment.
The Kapparot ritual is an important practice done ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. The ritual itself involves swinging a live chicken over one’s head three times and reciting a prayer to transfer sins to the bird. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor.
According to the New York Daily News, it is estimated that 50,000 to 100,000 chickens are slaughtered for Kapparot every year in New York City.
In recent years, money has replaced the chicken in the rite for many Jewish groups, but the practice continues in some communities, including in Orthodox neighborhoods of Brooklyn. That has angered advocates who say the practice is abusive to animals.
These pushes were renewed in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic has raised fears about the spread of zoonotic diseases.
“In light of the COVID-19 virus, and the consensus that it arose from a zoonotic cause, many people have been questioning how the city can possibly allow Kapparot to take place this year,” attorney Nora Constance Marino said in a statement in July 2020. She said the current pandemic represented new evidence that warranted reopening the suit.
Organizations in Israel have also fought against the continuation of the practice. Back in 2018, an appeal was submitted to the High Court of Justice demanding it ban the ritual, claiming it violated the animal cruelty laws in Israel, which forbid torturing animals.
Marcy Oster/JTA and Hadas Labrisch contributed to this report.