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After receiving multiple complaints from constituents, New York City Council Member Bob Holden visited live animal markets in Queens and Brooklyn. In these storefront slaughterhouses, also called viveros, customers select the animals who they want to eat, and workers kill them on premises. Among the approximately 12 species sold in NYC’s 70 live markets are chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, turkeys, quails, rabbits, goats, sheep and cows. The large mammals are held in pens, and the rabbits and birds are stored in cages.

After touring the markets in Queens and Brooklyn, Council Member Holden, said he was “appalled” by what he found inside: “The conditions are horrendous and barbaric. The animals are packed in. We saw birds with open sores, and we saw sick and dead birds in the cages. I don’t know how anyone can buy these birds. We’re going to do some investigation to find out how this is allowed, and we’re going to try to put a stop to it. It’s unconscionable.”

During an unannounced visit to a live animal market in Brooklyn, NYC Council Member Bob Holden encounters chickens with wounds and dead chickens mixed in with the living.

The city’s live animal markets were thrust into the national spotlight in early 2020 when the media reported that COVID was likely transmitted from animals to humans in a similar market in Wuhan, China. Despite this revelation, then Governor Andrew Cuomo deemed the state’s live markets “essential businesses.” Astonished by this designation, public health and animal welfare advocates staged protests in front of several of NYC’s markets to raise awareness of the public health risks.

During the first few months of the pandemic, media outlets reported on the ongoing efforts of advocacy groups to shut down the City’s 70 live animal markets

At the start of the pandemic lockdown, Dr. James Desmond, a veterinarian and infectious disease researcher based in Liberia, told TheirTurn, “Wet markets that sell live animals house different species in close proximity to each other and to humans. If different strains of influenza in any of these species combine to create a new flu strain, then a more lethal outbreak could occur, similar to the H2N2 pandemic of 1957.”

In response to constituent complaints, NYC Council Member Bob Holden visits a live animal market in his Queens district.

In 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was serving as the Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called for the closure of live animal markets in Asia, perhaps unaware of their presence in the United States. “I think they should shut down those things right away. It boggles my mind how, when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human/animal interface, that we don’t just shut it down.”

In 2022 and 2023, avian flu was detected in several live animal markets in New York City. Hundreds of birds were culled in an effort to contain the spread.

News coverage of avian flu outbreaks in live animal markets in NYC in 2022 and 2023

New York City’s live animal markets are regulated by the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets. Based on the findings in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the agency rarely cites the markets for violations of the city and state’s health and sanitation codes. It also rarely shuts down or suspends operations of the markets do have violations. Neighbors say that the lack of enforcement enables the owners to keep animals in squalid conditions and leave feces, urine and blood on the public sidewalks in front of the stores.

Two advocacy groups in NYC, Slaughter Free NYC and NYCLASS, have been campaigning to shut down the city’s live animal markets for several years. The Executive Director of NYCLASS, Edita Birnkrant, points to several reasons why they don’t belong. “In addition to violating health, sanitation and cruelty codes, many of the markets are likely violating zoning laws. Research conducted by The NYC Bar Association Animal Law Committee concluded that ‘many of the live animal markets are operating either without a certificate of occupancy or in potential violation of the uses permitted in the subject zoning district.’”

Map of live animal markets, or storefront slaughterhouses, in NYC created by the advocacy group Slaughter Free NYC

In recent years, several cows have escaped live animal markets and fled through congested city streets. In two cases, New Jersey-based Skylands Animal Sanctuary rescued the cows and gave them a forever home.

New York Times coverage of Freddie’s escape from a New York City storefront slaughterhouse

In posts on social media, many people credited their switch to a plant-based diet on the mainstream media coverage of the dramatic escapes and rescues. “I didn’t want to know about cows [being slaughtered] because I was addicted to cow ice cream,” said New York City resident Martha Mooney Waltien.” Then one day, Freddie ran from the slaughterhouse, and I saw his face. He was so scared, and he wanted to live. And I thought, ‘No more cheeseburgers.’”

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.

The outbreak of avian flu has prompted parents in New York City to call on the mayor and governor to suspend the operation live animal markets, particularly those near their children’s schools and playgrounds. In a letter shared with the media, the parents argue that the markets, which sell and slaughter multiple species of birds, potentially expose their children to a host of infectious diseases, including e. Coli, campylobacter and the current strain of avian flu, which has infected people in several countries, including the United States.

“The sidewalk in front of the live animal market next to my son’s school is often contaminated with chicken feces and blood,” said Irma Labiosa, one of the public school parents who signed the letter to Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul. “He could be tracking this waste into his classroom, onto the subway and into our home.”

Brooklyn’s leading newspaper, The Brooklyn Eagle, published the letter in full.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a letter sent by parents of NYC schoolchildren calling on Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams to suspend the operation of live animal markets near schools until an avian flu risk assessment is conducted.

New York City’s 70+ live animal markets, also known as storefront slaughterhouses, are retail businesses that are open to the public. Many operate in densely populated neighborhoods and are located in close proximity to homes, health care facilities, businesses, public transportation, schools and playgrounds. Despite the biohazards, customers are not required to wear PPE to protect themselves and the animals from disease. Among the 10 or more bird species slaughtered in these markets are chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons, quails and pheasants. 

“For years, I have been documenting and reporting dead chickens left in open dumpsters and puddles of blood and feces contaminating the sidewalks and streets in front of live animal markets in Queens,” said Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of the animal advocacy group NYCLASS. “The filthy sidewalks and putrid odors compromise the quality of life of everyone who lives and works in their vicinity and pose health risks, along with serious animal welfare violations that go ignored. That is why NYCLASS supports passage of state legislation that would prohibit the operation of these neighborhood slaughter markets and create a task force to investigate the public health risks and animal welfare concerns.”

The sidewalks in front of NYC’s live animal slaughter markets, many of which are located near schools and playgrounds, are often contaminated with feces and body parts

In response to the recent avian flu outbreak in New York in March 2022, the NY State Department of Agriculture and Markets banned the operation of fowl shows, auctions and exhibitions. In his announcement about the ban, Richard Ball, the Commissioner, stated, “By banning fowl shows and exhibitions in New York until further notice, we are taking a commonsense step to limit the co-mingling of birds to slow the spread of this disease.” Labiosa, the school parent, believes this ban should apply to New York’s live markets too. “Given how tightly confined the animals are, avian flu could spread like wildfire if an outbreak occurs in a live animal market,” said Labiosa. “They should not be exempt.” 

Irma Labiosa and her son Max walk by a live animal market located one block away from Max’s public school in New York City

Across the street from the live animal market near her son’s school, Labiosa told TheirTurn that she believes that the presence of live animal markets in lower-income areas is a form of environmental racism. “Wealthy New Yorkers would never allow slaughterhouses to operate in their neighborhoods, but lower income communities don’t have the resources to fight back,” said Labiosa. 

Labiosa’s son, Max, is also disturbed by the live animal market near his school, though, while speaking to TheirTurn, he expressed more concern about the mistreatment of animals than getting sick: “I’ve seen trucks stuffed with chickens, ducks and other birds. It makes me sad to see them treated that way.” Neither Labiosa nor Max eat meat anymore.

When COVID-19 reached New York, mainstream media outlets reported on the ongoing efforts of the advocacy Slaughter Free NYC to shut down the City’s 70+ live animal markets (click photo to view ABC News story)

Since 2019, Slaughter Free NYC, an advocacy group comprised of public health and animal rights advocates, has been calling on city and state officials to shut down the city’s 70+ live markets until a public health risk assessment is conducted. The group believed that the outbreak of COVID, which is believed to have been transmitted to humans in a live animal market, would trigger them to take its concerns more seriously, but they did not react. In fact, instead of shutting down the live markets, the state designated them as “essential businesses” during the lock down in March 2020.

Despite the government’s decision to ignore the calls of Slaughter Free NYC, the COVID outbreak did generate widespread mainstream media coverage about the risks of live animal markets and the advocacy group’s efforts to shut them down. In July 2020, Now This released a 10 minute documentary film (Here’s What Goes on Inside America’s Wet Markets) that went viral on social media.

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.