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On October 23rd, an Hasidic Jewish man from Brooklyn contacted TheirTurn to report that an infectious disease called campylobacter that “originated from Kaporos” was “going around” and that the city’s Department of Health (DOH) is “very aware of it” and “wants to be contacted by reporters.” The source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation in the Hasidic community, contacted TheirTurn because, for the past seven years, we have been reporting on the health risks associated with Kaporos and the DOH’s refusal to acknowledge and address them. Campylobacter, which can be transmitted from animals to humans and causes fever, nausea, severe abdominal pain and diarrhea, can be fatal among young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

During Kaporos, the blood and body parts of thousands of chickens who are killed in makeshift slaughterhouses contaminate the public streets and sidewalks in violation of seven New York City Health codes.

On October 25th, the DOH issued a public statement about the outbreak, but it has not yet publicly linked the campylobacter infections to Kaporos. “We are currently investigating an increase in campylobacteriosis cases in Brooklyn. We do not yet know the cause of the increase. While our data is still preliminary, there are approximately 50 cases reported in the affected areas in Brooklyn since the beginning of October.” In its statement, the DOH does not disclose that the “affected areas” are Hasidic neighborhoods, and it does not acknowledge that the “beginning of October” is when tens of thousands of Hasidim came into physical contact with live chickens.

Experts suspect that the number of campylobacter cases is much higher than 50. An underestimation is especially likely in Hasidic neighborhoods where family physicians are reluctant to report campylobacter cases, as required by law, for fear of shining a spotlight on the religious ritual that led to the outbreak.

The NYC Dept. of Health is “still investigating” the link between the outbreak of campylobacter and Kaporos, but health officials are aware that the outbreak occurred in Hasidic neighborhoods when the ritual sacrifice took place

Reporters have asked the DOH how many of the people infected with campylobacter are – or were – hospitalized and how many died, but the DOH has not yet answered these questions. It also hasn’t disclosed the neighborhoods where the outbreaks occurred. Instead, it states that it is “still investigating.” 

In 2020, advocacy groups plastered NYC with posters highlighting the risk of zoonotic disease transmission during Kaporos

Kaporos is a ritual slaughter during which participants swing live chickens around their heads while saying a prayer to atone for their sins before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. In order to facilitate the ritual, vendors purchase an estimated 100,000 chickens, sell them to people who partake in the ritual and kill them in makeshift slaughterhouses erected on residential streets in violation of seven NYC health codes. The birds are held in cramped cages on public streets where they are deprived of food, water and protection from weather extremes for up to several days before being slaughtered. Many die from illness and exposure in the crates before being used in the ritual.

The NYC Department of Health has preliminarily reported that 50 people contracted campylobacter in Brooklyn in early October. It has not yet disclosed that the cases are tied to Kaporos, the ritual swinging and slaughter of an estimated 100,000 chickens

The chicken vendors don’t have permits, but, at the direction of the Mayor, the NYPD assists in the ritual by providing barricades, floodlights and a security presence at an estimated 30 Kaporos sites in Brooklyn.

Over the years, animal welfare and public health advocates have sounded the alarm about the health risks, but the DOH has dismissed their concerns and refused to enforce the health codes on the grounds that “no disease signals have been associated with the practice.” That rationale, however, is a smokescreen. Because the Kaporos practitioners represent a voting bloc that often impacts the outcome of city and state elections, the Health Commissioner, who reports to the Mayor, has turned a blind eye to the obvious health risks; the previous reports of campylobacter; and a toxicology report that describes Kaporos as “dangerous condition” that “poses a significant public health hazard.”

The Mayor’s Health Commissioners have refused to address a toxicology report that outlines the public health risks posed by the slaughter of over 100,000 chickens on public streets during Kaporos.

If the Health Commissioner does, in fact, “want to be contacted by reporters” about the outbreak, then he has probably determined that burying the health risks associated with Kaporos now puts him in greater political and legal jeopardy than disclosing them, in defiance of the Mayor. Here’s why:

1. Because the toxicology report and other warnings have been in the public domain for many years, the Health Commissioner knows that the public, the media and even elected officials would accuse the Health Commissioner of having “blood on his hands” if people die from an infectious disease outbreak tied to Kaporos. 
2. Kaporos practitioners and animal rescuers have contracted campylobacter in previous years, but, with 50 or more cases reported in just one year, the DOH can no longer be on record with its statement that “no disease signals have been associated with the practice.”
3. When COVID began to spread globally, the public learned that infectious diseases can emerge from live animal markets. If a deadly infectious disease emerged from one of the estimated 30 makeshift markets that sell live chickens for Kaporos, then the public would wonder why the DOH didn’t shut it down. The Health Commissioner knows that he, and not the Mayor, would be held accountable, despite the fact that the Mayor instructs the DOH to allow Kaporos. (Note: Kaporos is potentially more dangerous than other live animal markets because the customers themselves physically handle the live animals, and most are not wearing protective gear. In addition, many of the animals are visibly sick and dying.)
4. New Yorkers are frustrated by the Health Department’s failure to curb behaviors in the Hasidic community that jeopardize the public health. During the first several months of COVID, for instance, Hasidim held large events during which tens of thousands of people came together indoors without masks or social distancing. New Yorkers were infuriated by the reckless behavior, which put the public and health care workers at great risk, and by the City’s refusal to hold the perpetrators accountable. 
5. Highly-publicized measles and polio outbreaks in 2019 and 2022 shined a spotlight on the need for the DOH to take authoritative steps to prevent disease outbreaks in Hasidic Jewish communities. 
6. Given the prevalence of avian flu, the DOH knows that some of the estimated 100,000 chickens who are trucked into the city could carry the virus.

In 2018, animal rights activists brought dead Kaporos chickens left on the streets of Brooklyn into the NYC Department of Health to call attention to the health risks associated with the ritual slaughter

In 2017, animal rights and public health advocates launched a campaign to compel the Health Commissioner at the time, Dr. Mary Bassett, to enforce the health codes violated during Kaporos. After being subjected to ten months of protests, Dr. Bassett resigned just one year into a four year term. In a speech at the Boston University School of Public Health during which she anticipated a protest, Dr. Bassett acknowledged that politics interfered with her ability to address the health risks associated with Kaporos: “Those of us who work in government face the reality of the fact that the people who appoint us have to go back to the public and back to the ballot box to be reappointed, so there’s always going to be a need for advocacy from people outside of government. For someone who is passionately committed to many issues embraced by advocates, it can be difficult to acknowledge the role that I play as a political appointee. I can’t always be at the barricades.”

NYC health codes violated during Kaporos, a ritual chicken slaughter that takes place before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement

With the outbreak of campylobacter, which is undoubtedly causing the victims a great deal of pain and suffering, the current Health Commissioner could very well want to join the advocates at the barricades because allowing Kaporos to take place in the future subjects him and the DOH to legal liability and public relations backlash in the event of the outbreak of a more serious infectious disease.

Thousands of chickens stacked in crates on the streets of Brooklyn died of hypothermia over the course of two days during Kaporos, a ritual animal slaughter that takes place each year in the days leading up to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. After being delivered to Hasidic neighborhoods in Williamsburg, Borough Park, Crown Heights and Midwood, hundreds of crates filled with chickens were left outside in the rain, soaking tens of thousands of chickens who were being stored without shelter on public streets. 

According to Michael Dolling, who rescues and rehabilitates farm animals, young chickens have difficulty regulating their body temperature. When they are exposed to cold temperatures, wind and rain, they quickly become hypothermic. Upon seeing the wet and shivering animals at several Kaporos sites in Williamsburg, Dolling said that thousands of chickens at those sites alone would be dead within hours. In fact, many of the chickens were already dead — before even being used in the ritual. “In past years, when Kaporos took place in September, thousands of chickens slowly roasted in the crates. This year, they froze to death.”  

Thousands of chickens died from hypothermia on the streets of Brooklyn during #kaporos, a #YomKippur ritual slaughter that violates multiple health codes and exposes public to disease. When will NY State Health Commissioner @DrMaryTBassett enforce the law? cc: @ADL @UJAfedNY pic.twitter.com/ITZ0P41wRr

— Animal Rights News (@theirturn) October 4, 2022

Over the course of six days, advocates rescued and saved the lives of 238 chickens who would have otherwise died of exposure or been killed during the Kaporos ritual.  The rescuers used car heaters, towels and blankets to warm the shivering birds while rushing them to a triage center for first aid. There, they used heat lamps, heat plates, hair dryers and warm water bottles to raise their body temperature while administering subcutaneous fluids and medicines to stabilize them.

During Kaporos in 2022, animal rights activists in Brooklyn rescued and saved the lives of 238 chickens who would otherwise have died of hypothermia or been slaughtered.

During Kaporos, ultra-Orthodox, or Hasidic, Jews twirl a live chicken around their head while reciting a prayer asking for forgiveness for their sins. After the ritual, the chickens are killed in one of dozens of makeshift slaughterhouses erected on public streets without permits in violation of 15 city and state health and animal cruelty laws.

During Kaporos, a ritual slaughter of chickens before Yom Kippur, residential streets in several Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn are contaminated with chicken feces in violation of multiple city and state health codes.

Instead of shutting down the slaughterhouses and issuing fines, the NYPD provides the Kaporos vendors with barricades, floodlights and a police presence to help facilitate the ritual killing. At some of the Kaporos sites, the NYPD closes down entire public streets. Despite the health code and animal cruelty violations and the lack of permits, the city government subsidizes Kaporos because the Hasidic communities in Brooklyn are a powerful voting bloc. 

In 2018, animal rights activists brought dead Kaporos chickens left on the streets of Brooklyn into the NYC Department of Health.

For many years, animal rights activists with the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos protested Kaporos, calling on practitioners to perform the ritual using coins, a commonly used alternative to chickens. Over time, however, the protests, which did not appear to be effecting change, morphed into “chicken care vigils” during which activists provide food and water to the chickens in the crates.

@theirturn

Look how hungry they are. See 5th link in bio. #kaporos #yomkippur #animalcruelty #hasidimofbrooklyn #animalsacrifice @nychealthy

♬ original sound – Donny Moss

In 2017 and 2018, animal rights activists in New York City ran a campaign to compel the Health Commissioner at the time, Dr. Mary Bassett, to enforce the health codes violated during Kaporos. In a meeting with Dr. Bassett and other Health Department officials, the advocates presented her with a toxicology report which concluded that  Kaporos poses a “significant public health hazard” based on fecal and blood samples taken from the streets. Indeed, several advocates who have rescued abandoned and sick chickens have contracted e. Coli and campylobacter. Dr. Bassett refused to curb Kaporos, telling the advocates that “no disease signals” had been associated with the practice.

After being subjected to ten months of increasingly provocative protests during her public appearances, Dr. Bassett resigned from her position as Health Commissioner with over three years left in her term and moved to Boston. In anticipation of a protest during a talk that she was giving at the Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Bassett attempted to defend her inaction on the grounds that her boss at the time, Mayor Bill de Blasio, would not allow it:  “Those of us who work in government face the reality of the fact that the people who appoint us have to go back to the public and back to the ballot box to be reappointed, so there’s always going to be a need for advocacy from people outside of government. For someone who is passionately committed to many issues embraced by advocates, it can be difficult to acknowledge the role that I play as a political appointee. I can’t always be at the barricades.”

Animal rights activists say that, as NYS Health Commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett has an obligation to enforce the health codes and protect the public from another zoonotic disease outbreak

After spending three years in Boston, Dr. Bassett returned to New York in 2021, when Governor Kathy Hochul appointed her State Health Commissioner, a position that gives her more power than before to shut down Kaporos. Activists hoped that the COVID pandemic, which is believed to have originated in a live animal market, would compel Dr. Bassett to curb the practice, as tens of thousands of people without PPE physically handle live animals, many of whom are visibly sick and show signs of respiratory distress.

Mayor de Blasio’s Health Commissioners have refused to address a toxicology report that outlines the public health risks posed by the slaughter of over 100,000 chickens on public streets during Kaporos.

In 2015, an advocacy group called the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos and 19 NYC residents who live in neighborhoods that are contaminated by the mass slaughter sued the City of New York, the NYC Department of Health and the NYPD for failing to enforce the 15 public health, sanitation and anti-cruelty laws and regulations that are violated during Kaporos. Nora Constance Marino, the attorney for the plaintiffs, called on the court to issue a “Writ of Mandamus,” which would compel city agencies to enforce the laws. After two lower courts ruled against the plaintiffs, Marino argued her case in front of the Court of Appeals, which ruled that city agencies have discretion over which laws to enforce.

Activists estimate that at least 100,000 chickens are slaughtered in the streets of Brooklyn each year during Kaporos.

From September 7 – 20, 2021, NYC’s animal rights community staged a multi-front effort to help the victims of Kaporos, an annual ritual animal slaughter that takes place in some Orthodox Jewish communities in the days leading up to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. In Brooklyn alone, an estimated 100,000 chickens are used in the ritual each year. 

The chickens used in the Kaporos slaughter ritual are held in crates for up to several days with little to no food or water. Each year, activists find hundreds of dead chickens mixed in with the living.

The chickens are trucked into the city from factory farms; stored in crates for up to several days with little to no food or water; swung in the air as practitioners say a prayer; and killed in makeshift slaughterhouses erected on public streets without permits. Despite the lack of permits and multiple health code and animal cruelty violations, the NYPD provides many of the chicken vendors with barricades, floodlights and orange traffic cones in which the chickens are bled out onto the street. In some neighborhoods, the NYPD also cordons off public streets.

In Brooklyn, tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews swing chickens around their heads as part of an annual ritual animal slaughter called Kaporos.

For over 10 years, New York City’s animal rights community has engaged in protest, civil disobedience, litigation, lobbying, educational outreach and animal rescue in an effort to eliminate the practice and help the victims. Despite these efforts, Kaporos continues unabated because the practitioners represent a powerful voting bloc that can help make or break elections in New York.

The city subsidizes Kaporos despite the fact that it violates multiple health code violations that put the public at risk of a zoonotic disease outbreak.

Making the Switch from Protests to Chicken Care

From 2010 to 2017, the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, the organization that has led community efforts, staged protests at the largest Kaporos sites in Brooklyn, but the organization stopped because the practitioners doubled down on the use of chickens. In addition, many taunted activists by handling the chickens more aggressively. In 2018, the Alliance transitioned from protesting to providing the chickens with watermelon and water. The “chicken care” approach provides a bit of relief to the chickens, who would otherwise receive no nourishment, and it demonstrates to the practitioners that the animals are sentient. 

Animal rights activists provide water to some of the chickens who are stacked in crates for up to several days with no nourishment.

Putting the Public at Risk of a Zoonotic Disease Outbreak 

The approximately 30 Kaporos sites in Brooklyn are, in effect, unregulated live animal markets where the customers physically handle the chickens, often without protective gear. This close contact could expose them to pathogens harbored by the chickens. Over the years, many activists who have come into physical contact with the chickens have contracted e. Coli and campylobacter. 

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, actress and model Daisy Fuentes Marx tweeted about the public health risks associated with Kaporos

According to a toxicologist who studied fecal and blood samples taken from the streets, Kaporos “constitutes a dangerous condition” and “poses a significant public health hazard.” If the living and dead chickens, who are crowded together in crates, harbor viruses that commingle and mutate into a strain that can be transmitted to humans, an avian flu could spread throughout the community and into the general public before it’s even detected.

As part of lawsuit filed against NYC on behalf of Brooklyn residents negatively impacted by the health codes violations, attorney Nora Constance Marino hired a toxicologist to investigate the health risks associated with Kaporos and produce a report. Dr. Dave Chokshi and the NYC Health Commissioners who preceded him have refused to address the toxicology report.

Animal Rescue

During the 2021 Kaporos events, activists in New York City rescued 708 chickens, the most ever. At a triage center in Brooklyn, a rescue crew led by the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos and Tamerlaine Sanctuary (a refuge for farm animals in NJ) provided the chickens with wound care, antibiotics and nourishment before loading them into vans that transported them to sanctuaries around the country.

In the days leading up to Yom Kippur, activists with the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos rescued 708 chickens and transported them to farm animal sanctuaries around the country.

The rescuers also brought over 20 chickens to veterinarians for surgical procedures that totaled over $15,000. According to Jill Carnegie, a rescuer with the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, the mortality rate of the rescued chickens who were brought to the triage center was the lowest ever.

The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos (a project run by United Poultry Concerns) rescued 708 chickens from slaughter during the 2021 Kaporos events in Brooklyn

A New Documentary Film 

In September, Cavelight Films, a New York-based production company, released a highly-anticipated documentary film about Kaporos, The 12-minute film, Voting Bloc: Slaughter in the Streets of Brooklyn, takes viewers deep inside the insular Orthodox Jewish communities where Kaporos takes place and follows several animal rights activists who document the ritual and rescue animals. 

The Campaign to End the Use of Chickens as Kaporos

In September 2017, animal rights activists in New York began calling on the New York City Department of Health to enforce the health laws violated during Kaporos, including the slaughter of animals in residential neighborhoods and the contamination of public streets with blood, feces and body parts. They were hopeful that the Health Commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett, would shut down the mass ritual slaughter not only because of the well documented health risks and violations, but also because she presented herself as a social justice advocate who had regrets about not speaking out against other injustices when she had the platform to do so. When Dr. Bassett dismissed the activists’ concerns, they began protesting  at her public speaking engagements. At several events, including a global public health conference at the New York Hilton, the disruptions forced Dr. Bassett to forfeit her presentation.

In August 2018, after being subjected to 10 months of unrelenting protests, Dr. Bassett resigned as Health Commissioner with three years left in her term and moved to Boston to take a job at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her departure was not the outcome that the activists sought, but it did demonstrate the power of protest, civil disobedience and pressure campaigns. Neither she nor the media acknowledged the role that the protests played in her decision to resign.

In 2018, animal advocacy groups in NYC held a press conference at the Department of Health calling on Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett to enforce the city’s health codes that are violated during Kaporos, an annual ritual animal slaughter in which an estimated 100,000 chickens are killed in the streets of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

While Dr. Bassett never did acknowledge her refusal to enforce her own health codes, she did publicly admit that she was constrained by politics. In anticipation of a protest during a presentation at the Boston University School of Public Health, she stated, “Those of us who work in government face the reality of the fact that the people who appoint us have to go back to the public and back to the ballot box to be reappointed, so there’s always going to be a need for advocacy from people outside of government. For someone who is passionately committed to many issues embraced by advocates, it can be difficult to acknowledge the role that I play as a political appointee. I can’t always be at the barricades.”

Multiple health codes are violated during Kaporos, a ritual animal sacrifice, but NYC Health Commissioners  turns a blind eye because the practitioners represent a powerful voting bloc.

While most of the audience members did not know what Dr. Bassett was talking about, the animal rights activists who were present or watching the livestream did. In New York, many elected officials go to great lengths to support of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish communities because they represents a powerful voting bloc. Dr. Bassett’s boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio, undoubtedly forbade her from shutting down Kaporos, despite the fact that it violates so many laws, because it could have cost him future endorsements from that community. To appease her boss, Dr. Bassett prioritized politics ahead of public health.  

In September 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul hired Dr. Bassett to serve as the state’s Health Commissioner, a position that once again gives her the authority to enforce health codes and take measures to protect the public health.

Animal rights activists plaster NYC with posters highlighting the risk of zoonotic disease transmission during Kaporos in 2020

When Dr. Bassett resigned in 2018, the activist community turned its attention to the Deputy Commissioner of Disease Control, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis. He seemed like an appropriate target, given the e. Coli and campylobacter infections and the toxicology report which outlined the public health risks. After he ignored letters requesting a meeting and refused to talk to advocates in the lobby of the Department of Health, activists staged two protests at a spin (cycling) studio he co-owned with his husband. After the second protest, he falsely accused protest organizer Donny Moss of assault and had him arrested. Instead of engaging in a discussion with the activists or simply enforcing the health codes, Dr. Daskalakis used his power as a high-ranking city official to silence and intimidate activists in order to prevent future protests at his spin studio.

Discomfort about Kaporos Among the Practitioners 

After Yom Kippur, TheirTurn posted a Kaporos video in an Orthodox (Lubavitch) Facebook group with almost 8,000 members. The video, taken in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, shows bloody chickens flailing around in great distress after workers at a makeshift slaughterhouse sliced their throats and tossed them into the street. While several Lubavitchers argued that the chickens were dead despite their movements, the majority of people expressed anger about the cruelty and the reckless disregard for “God’s creatures.” Some also expressed concern about the chickens being discarded, as they are told from a young age that the chickens are donated to the poor. 

Video footage of chickens being tossed into the street while still alive after their throats were sliced generated angry responses from Lubavitcher Jews who are told that the chickens are donated to the poor.

During the 2021 Kaporos, the NYPD took the unprecedented step of shutting down two of the Kaporos sites after dozens of activists filed sanitation, animal cruelty and underage worker complaints with the city. While this enforcement act did nothing to help the chickens, who were transferred to other Kaporos sites, it did offer the activist community a glimmer of hope. Still, after years of protest and other forms of advocacy, many NYC activists have concluded that the mass ritual slaughter will continue until a deadly zoonotic disease outbreak forces city or state officials to shut it down. Until then, the animal rights community will continue to engage in chicken care and rescue to reduce the suffering and save lives.

As COVID-19 blazed a trail of sickness and death through Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community during the summer of 2020, animal rights activists in NYC thought that the Department of Health (DOH) would cancel the annual Kaporos chicken slaughter events, which were scheduled to take place from September 20 – 27.  The DOH knew that these large, crowded, semi-enclosed gatherings could be super-spreader events and that the participants would not be wearing masks. The DOH also knew that Kaporos could put the public at risk of another zoonotic disease outbreak, as ritual practitioners physically handle live animals in the makeshift wet markets. In spite of these risks and the fact that seven health codes are violated during Kaporos, the City allowed the annual slaughter to take place.

During Kaporos, an estimated 100,000 chickens are trucked into Brooklyn; held in crates on the street for up to a week; and swung in the air by practitioners before being killed in approximately 30 open air slaughterhouses erected on residential streets. The blood, feces and body parts of the chickens contaminate the sidewalks and streets for several days, exposing New Yorkers to E. coli, campylobacter and other pathogens and toxins, according to a renowned toxicologist hired by area residents who sued the DOH and NYPD over their failure to enforce the City’s health laws. 

Public health and animal rights activists have been sounding the alarm about the risks to public health posed by the Kaporos. If a zoonotic disease spilled over into humans at a Kaporos wet market, it could spread like wildfire in densely populated NYC before health officials even detected it.

In early September, when the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos came to the realization that Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi and Deputy Commissioner of Disease Control Demetre Daskalakis would be allowing Kaporos to take place, Jill Carnegie, the organization’s field director, began working with fellow rescue organizers to ramp up placement efforts for the chickens. They found homes for 275, but she knew from previous years that additional sanctuaries and homes would volunteer to take many more once the rescues began.

In the days leading up to Yom Kippur, hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews around the world engage in a ritual animal sacrifice called Kaporos.

During Kaporos, the all-volunteer rescue operation begins as soon as the chickens are unloaded from the flatbed trucks that transport them to Brooklyn from the factory farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where they are fattened for the first five weeks of their lives. Armed with the crates and blankets, Carnegie and other rescuers search the streets of Brooklyn’s Hasidic neighborhoods for chickens; rescue the ones who are unattended; and whisk them away to a triage center where chicken care experts from Tamerlaine Sanctuary provide them with nourishment and first aid as they determine whether or not they need more advanced veterinary care. According to Carnegie, rescuers transported 30 chickens to the vet, 15 of whom had wings or toes amputated.

Kaporos chickens in transit from a triage center in Brooklyn to Tamerlaine Sanctuary in NJ. Some of the chickens require surgery for broken wings and toes.

After seven days of rescues, Carnegie and her fellow rescuers ended up with 510 chickens, who they treated and transported to dozens of sanctuaries and homes around the country — from Maine to Arizona.

In 2019, TheirTurn documented the rescue operation:

In the weeks after Kaporos ended, COVID infections spiked in most of the neighborhoods where Kaporos took place. The city designated these areas as red zones and shut down the schools and non-essential businesses. Activists were left wondering how many lives – human and nonhuman – could have been spared if Dr. Chokshi and Dr. Daskalakis stopped Kaporos from happening.

The chickens used in the Kaporos ritual are slaughtered when they are five or six weeks old. Most appear to be fully grown because farmers feed them hormones and antibiotics to make the grow quickly, but this rescue looked her age.