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Orthodox Jewish Girl Secretly Gives Activist a Slaughter-bound Chicken

September 26, 2017 by Leave a Comment


The News

Each year in the days leading up to Yom Kippur, Rocky Schwartz, like dozens of other animal rights activists, attempts to dissuade ultra-Orthodox Jews from participating in chicken sacrifice called Kaporos. In 2016, she had a lucky break. This is the story of a young Hassidic girl named Rose who defied her community; an animal rights activist who convinced her to show compassion; and a chicken who got a second chance.

Kaporos is a annual ritual in which ultra-Orthodox Jews swing chickens around their heads while saying a prayer to transfer their sins to the animals After the ritual, they give the chickens to a butcher who slices their throats. The ritual is performed prior to Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  

Many Kaporos practitioners transfer their sins to coins instead of live chickens.

In Brooklyn, where an estimated 60,000 chickens are swung and massacred each year, animal rights activists take to the streets to protest, disrupt, rescue, educate the public and plea for mercy.

Over the course of the week leading up to Yom Kippur, hundreds of animal rights activists protest Kaporos where the ritual is taking place. (photo: United Poultry Concerns)

Each year, activists rescue hundreds of chickens from the Kaporos and bring them to sanctuaries that give them a forever home. Rose is living in Brooklyn with Ms. Schwartz, her human companion Jay, three dogs and two other rescue chickens.

A one-year old Rose, who was rescued from slaughter after the Yom Kippur Kaporos ritual, enjoys an afternoon in the garden.

In 2015, The Alliance to Ban Chickens as Kaporos sued the NYC Department of Health and NYPD for failing to enforce the 15 public health, sanitation and anti-cruelty laws and regulations that are violated during Kaporos. The case is pending in New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

Your Turn

The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, the organization that is leading the effort to stop the ritual slaughter, is raising money to pay for the long-term care of the chickens who are rescued and for a groundbreaking lawsuit against NYC for failing to enforce the laws that are broken by Kaporos practitioners. If you have the means, please contribute to the INDIEGOGO campaign, Justice for the Roses.



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TheirTurn.net Comments

  1. Ioanapopesco says:

    Astia nu sunt nomali la cap! Sa inceteze sa mai faca pacate iar daca fac,sa sufere ei nu puii sacrificati! Niste incuiati la cap! Urmeaza il puna pe antihrist pe tron crezand ca e Mesia! Rusine lor! vor plange crunt!

  2. ahimsa42 says:

    “We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the devil in human form. ” — William Ralph Inge.

    “Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.”-Albert Schweitzer

    “In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they’re the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.” ― Isaac Bashevis Singer

  3. Terry says:

    This is a shameful ritual that is done every year. The Jewish religion teaches that knowing and unnecessary cruelty to animals is a sin. How could committing one sin by abusing a living being, take away other sins? It doesn’t make sense. A “tradition” that needs to be ended. Another contradiction: the birds are afterwards slaughtered for meat, and then given to non-Jews, because after the birds are treated in this way, they no longer can be kosher.

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