Consumer Fraud, Unsanitary Conditions, Thousands Of Birds Killed Then Thrown Away: PETA V. Chabad Kapparot, Round 2, Continued

As we noted yesterday, PETA has some strong evidence pointing to animal mistreatment and health violations at a Chabad kapparos center run in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

The JTA has new detailed report:

PETA alleges bird dumping at High Holidays ritual in Brooklyn

PETA undercover cameras show chicken carcasses piled in a Dumpster after slaughtering at the kapparot center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in 2006.
By Sue Fishkoff


NEW YORK (JTA) -- An animal rights group is calling for a New York state investigation into kapparot, the High Holidays ritual that involves swinging a live chicken over one’s head.


The ceremony is meant to transfer one’s sins to the bird, which is then slaughtered and its meat, or an equivalent monetary amount, is given to the poor.


Instead, the rights group charges, thousands of dead chickens were thrown away in Dumpsters following last year’s ritual in Brooklyn, a violation of Jewish law and a burden on sanitation workers.


It’s the second year in a row that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is objecting to kapparot -- also pronounced kapparos -- in the New York City borough, but the first year it is focusing on dumping dead birds.


On Monday, in a letter to the state’s kosher law enforcement division, PETA asks that Rabbi Shea Hecht of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education be investigated for possible consumer fraud at the kapparot center he runs in Crown Heights.

The letter charges that on Sept. 20, 2007, the center discarded thousands of chickens slaughtered after the ceremony, throwing their carcasses into hundreds of trash bags picked up the next day by Greg’s Express.

“These are chickens that consumers expected to be processed for meat that would be distributed as tzedakah,” or charity, it states. “Participants at NCFJE clearly did not expect the chickens they made kapporos with … to be disposed of as trash.”


As the center knew it was selling and killing more chickens than it could process, the complaint continues, its actions constituted deceptive advertising and consumer fraud, as well as a violation of the principle of “ba’al tashchit,” or wasteful, wanton destruction.


A separate letter was submitted to the Kashrus Information Center, an independent association of more than 100 rabbis that monitors kosher affairs in Brooklyn.


Hecht vehemently denies PETA's allegation.


"To my knowledge I didn't throw out any chickens last year," he told JTA. "Last time I checked, in this country we have a right to swing a chicken over our head and give it to the poor to eat. It's a beautiful thing."

Rabbi Moshe Weiner, the rabbinic administrator of the information center, said that sites operated by communal organizations such as Hecht's are well run. Weiner acknowledged problems at unlicensed “fly-by-nights,” but said the situation had significantly improved because of proactive steps taken by area rabbis.

Nevetheless he is taking the situation seriously, he told JTA, and has already called for a meeting of leading rabbis, the state authorities and Hecht to address PETA's concerns. "If something is wrong we have to clean up our act," he said. "We are not shrugging it off."

The recent complaints are based on the work of PETA staffers Hannah and Philip Schein, a married couple who have been documenting what they allege to be health, safety and animal welfare abuses at Brooklyn’s estimated 14 kapparot centers for the past three years. They were chosen because they are Jewish, they say; and both are former Hillel program directors -- Hannah at Princeton University and Philip at Syracuse.





Although this year’s letter focused on disposal problems, animal welfare continues to be a concern, the Scheins say. Some centers become overwhelmed by demand and use young men not properly trained in shechting, or kosher slaughter, they say.



“They’re supposed to put the chickens in cones to bleed out,” said Hannah Schein, showing a video the couple shot at one Brooklyn center last year. “These youngsters were just taking them after shechting and putting them in garbage bags.”



Pointing to several Chasidic boys standing in a Dumpster surrounded by chicken carcasses, she asked, “How is this fulfilling my mitzvah of kapparos?”





The Scheins, who live near PETA headquarters in Norfolk, Va., came to light earlier this year as the couple responsible for the first undercover videos of controversial slaughter methods at Agriprocessors, the kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, that is currently at the center of a legal maelstrom.





“Here you can see, in the whole shechting area, they’re piled five to six layers high,” said Philip Schein, walking a reporter through footage he shot at kapparot sites in 2005 and 2006. “Some of them are still alive. There’s blood everywhere. It’s the most unhygienic thing I’ve ever seen.”





Weiner told JTA that “chickens were dumped” at some sites. One site in Flatbush, which did not operate last year, was a notorious violator.





“They slaughtered too many, couldn’t process them, then dumped them in the garbage,” Weiner recalled.





Talking about the unlicensed “fly-by-nights,” he said, “They buy chickens, hire a shochet and have no supervision. It’s true, it got out of hand.” But, Weiner added, things were much better last year.





A week after the PETA complaint was submitted on July 30, 2007, about a dozen leading rabbis met to discuss how to clean up kapparot and clamp down on the worst offenders.





In a letter signed by 27 of their colleagues, the rabbis warned local Jews to patronize only those kapparot centers with rabbinic supervision.





Rabbi Luzer Weiss, the director of the Brooklyn office of the Kosher Law Enforcement Division of the New York State agriculture department, said that every center was told it must have a rabbi on site from the time the chickens arrived early in the morning through the slaughter process to ensure the animals are given food, water and appropriate shelter.





Weiner said at least three centers decided not to open because they did not want to pay for such supervision.





“There were people walking around from place to place, checking,” Weiss said. “Thank God, it went very well.”





Not that well, the Scheins claim. While they did see latex gloves and other indications of health and safety precautions at last year’s kapparot sites, the Scheins said the chicken dumping and other animal welfare issues were as bad as ever.





Weiss said he received no reports of dumping in 2007.





For years, Orthodox groups have warned against sloppy kapparot sites in Brooklyn. In 2001, Kashrus magazine, a watchdog publication for the kosher industry, urged much tighter control over kapparot.





For the past five years, the Kashrus Information Center has warned Jewish consumers about violations it observed at some centers and issued guidelines for correct practice.





The problem is that no one agency of any kind, religious or government, is in charge of overseeing or enforcing kapparot. The Scheins found that out when they submitted their first complaint last year. Each agency passed the buck to the next, they said.





“The power is in the hands of the consumer,” said Rabbi Moshe Elefant of the Orthodox Union, one of the rabbis at last year’s August meeting. “The consumer has to say, ‘I will not go to a kapparot center that is not supervised.’ And their rabbi has to tell them not to go.”





In preparation for this year’s kapparot, which will take place Oct. 2-8 throughout the borough, rabbis again are urging the Jewish public to keep its eyes open and telling kapparot centers to obey the law, secular and Jewish.





In its summer issue, Kashrus magazine printed a nine-point guideline for ethical and safe kapparot worked out by the magazine’s publisher, Rabbi Yosef Wikler, in cooperation with kosher slaughter expert Dr. Joe Regenstein of Cornell University.





Weiner worries about bringing the state into the issue.





“It could open up the door for groups like PETA to give trouble to the legal ones,” putting the entire ritual in jeopardy, he said.





That’s OK with the Scheins, who point out that Jewish law allows one to give money to charity instead of swinging a chicken. Today it is primarily Chasidim who still observe the full ritual.





That may be so, Weiner said, “but each community has the right to practice its own customs.”





Nevertheless, he added, it must be done “in a legal and humane way.”


Guide To Safe Kapparot.

Comments

[eliyah]

babylonian superstition, nonsense, necromancy, paganism. what an absolute farce "kapparos" is, even if the chickens are properly treated. the only positive thing that could come out of it is a bit of food for the poor, and if that's not even the case then... can people honestly believe their "sins" are being "transferred" to a chicken? little removed from voodoo sacrifice rituals.

[David F.]

This is a good article, and it sounds like the Scheins did a good job explaining the problems to the reporter.

I wish PETA would have released a real documentary with the Scheins explaining the context of the footage, the meaning of the ritual, and what needed to be improved. The video PETA released doesn't answer any of those questions.

[Rachel Batya]

babylonian superstition, nonsense, necromancy, paganism.

I don't really have a problem with the superstition part of it. I mean, lots of things in Judaism (and life) have no strictly logical basis, but they get me where I'm going, I feel a strong affinity for them, and I don't use them to harm anyone.

With kapporos, I have a problem with the fact that killing the bird is an integral part of the ritual. That's where the superstition becomes harmful.

If people just held the bird (safely and properly, please) and circled it around their heads, what's the harm? People would feel good, the birds would get to sh*t on their heads, and everybody would go home happy.

[Rachel Batya]

Oops, sorry for the formatting, still learning...

[Rachel Batya]

...and learning

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

As someone who used to raise chickens for eggs as a kid, I maintain the handling by the wings is definitely cruel.

My 11-year-old daughter has more sense than these people. My daughter is the only kid at her school that doesn't participate in this stupid ritual. She refuses to even watch this nonsense.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

little removed from voodoo sacrifice rituals.

I remember listening to a voodoo practitioner on WBAI in NYC say that what they do with a chicken is not really all that different than what Jews do to them in New York.

[rebitzman]

"Last time I checked, in this country we have a right to swing a chicken over our head and give it to the poor to eat. It's a beautiful thing."

God Bless America?

I wish PETA would have released a real documentary with the Scheins explaining the context of the footage, the meaning of the ritual, and what needed to be improved.

Having a video released with Jews extolling a pagan ritual? That would be nothing but a chillul HaShem.

[Rachel Batya]

"Last time I checked, in this country we have a right to swing a chicken over our head and give it to the poor to eat."

Maybe I'm just hopelessly perverse, but every time I look at this quote, I crack up laughing.

[Money goes farther than chickens]

"Last time I checked, in this country we have a right to swing a chicken over our head and give it to the poor to eat. It's a beautiful thing."

Well . . . if being stupid is a beautiful thing, then I guess you can revel in the beauty.

You do know that if you wish to do kapporot, you can wave money instead, right? Well, waving a $10.00, $20.00, or $50.00 bill and donating that will feed a LOT more poor people than one chick will.

Now, imagine if all those people who swung chickens waved $20.00 bills . . . or even $10.00 bills. There would be so much money for the poor to use for food . . . you'd almost have trouble trying to give it all away.

[Mgftc]

*than one chick will.*

that's CHICKEN, of course

[Sam]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D92Q6K480&show_article=1

[Harold F]

Using chickens is bad enough but could you imagine using rabbits. Those poor animals getting swung around by their ears

[Yisrael Medad]

600 vs. 400!

Care to comment?

http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2008/08/they-beat-out-agriprocessors.html

Was this a Jewish-owned firm?

[Yisrael Medad]

sorry, highlighted link

[michael ben drosai]

yisrael -= no they don't care to comment because then it wouldn't seem as if agri is the only one doing this

but the hallmark of truth . . . .

[Shmarya]

yisrael -= no they don't care to comment because then it wouldn't seem as if agri is the only one doing this

but the hallmark of truth . . . .

Isn't you – or Medad.

Here.

You'll also note there are so far no allegations of forced unpaid overtime, 17 hour shifts, sexual exploitation, extortion, abuse and other simila crimes at Howard. There are many of such allegations at Agriprocessors.

Right now, Howard stands accused of hiring a huge number of illegal aliens – and that's about it.

If either of you took even a moment to look at the data, you'd know this.

[Yisrael Medad]

Well, it could still be a case of אור לגויים although the exact source in Yeshayahu is

וְאֶצָּרְךָ, וְאֶתֶּנְךָ לִבְרִית עָם--לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם.

[Barry]

What I would love to see televised is George Bush unexpectedly changing the televised and somewhat boring Turkey Pardoning at Thanksgiving into a Kapparos ritual.

[Zalman Alpert]

Like other issues involving the Charedi comunity, the problem with Kapparoth is two fold.
Firstly the in your face attitude of holding outdoor kapparos and advertising it . This sort of ritual should be private done indoors and with little PR and fanfare of course that itself is against the new found religious doctrines of Chabad.
Secondly kapparos was not designed to make 1 family or group wealthy. It was designed to help the poor. And there are truely poor jews whose name satrts with letters A-G and I-Z.
Eventually rituals like Kapparoth and Meziza bePeh will not show the frum world in a beneficial light.
Of course both are mandated by the Tore ...

[Inside Outside]

Crazy prohibitions, hiding child molesters, beating people who speak out against child molesters, beating and harrassing women not dressed "modestly" enough or sitting in the wrong place on the bus, buses with mechitzot, cults of personality focused on rebbes and ravs, pagan blood rituals like kapporot . . . it's time to officially declare this business and those who practice it to be outside of Judaism.

[Rachel Batya]

--What I would love to see televised is George Bush unexpectedly changing the televised and somewhat boring Turkey Pardoning at Thanksgiving into a Kapparos ritual. --

How about we convince the Kapporos practitioners to use a turkey instead of a chicken? They can transfer their sins to the turkey and, rather than shecht it, give it to the prez to pardon. Of course, by then, the prez may be busying pardoning several other turkeys as he exits the oval office, but I still think it's worth a try.

[Carol Ann Varley]

The Santarians sacrifice chickens in their religious rituals. The sect originated in Cuba and combines Roman Catholic and African tribal beliefs. A city in Florida tried to ban the animal sacrifices and the case made its way to the Supreme Court. The court ruled it was a violation of the free exercise clause to ban the animal sacrifices.

If the city had passed an ordinance prohibiting animal sacrifice for public health reasons it might have avoided tangling with the first amendment.

I believe there are legitimate public health concerns about this practice; particularly, if the chickens are to be provided to the poor to eat.

The hospital where I work is not permitted to donate excess prepared food to homeless shelters because of public health regulations.

[zunder]

the chickens shouldn't be wasted but...the reporter has her facts wrong: a) you don't "swing' the bird...you gently hold it, and slowly circle it over your head and b)no sins are "transferred' to the chicken...the process is entirely symbolic, and meant to spur the participant to repentance...the idea being that one ought to realize that as we have all violated the word of God as we sin throughout the year, we are deserving of death...

[Carol Ann Varley]

Plus, once the Avian flu virus adapts and causes illness and death in humans, holding oneself accountable for sins will be a more attractive alternative.

[Carol Ann Varley]

Zunder,
If the process is symbolic, why not use a rubber chicken? Also, why should a tiny chicken be used vicariously for human sin?

Human sin is too great any animal.

[Carol Ann Varley]

The sentence should read: human sin is too great for any animal.

[Rachel Batya]

--the idea being that one ought to realize that as we have all violated the word of God as we sin throughout the year, we are deserving of death... --

There's an uplifting thought.

[rebitzman]

++If the process is symbolic, why not use a rubber chicken?++

Interesting form of transubstantiation.

[Rachel Batya]

++If the process is symbolic, why not use a rubber chicken?++

Because the impetus to do teshuva comes from shechting the bird and coming face to face with death. It's kind of pickin' on the chicken, of course, since the chicken didn't sin and doesn't deserve death. That's really my only problem with the ritual--and the fact that people hold the chickens by the wings, which is not a humane way to hold a chicken.

[Pagan Rituals: For When Judaism Just Isn't Good Enough]

Because the impetus to do teshuva comes from shechting the bird and coming face to face with death.

Which also proves that it obviously doesn't work, even symbolically.

If it really caused people to do teshuva, why do the same people do it year after year?

And . . . isn't kapporot really saying that Yom Kippur isn't good enough? Isn't Yom Kippur supposed to bring home the whole point that life and death are in HaShem's "hands" and that we should repent and do teshuva and try to be better than we were the year before?

We have a perfectly good Holy Day and set of rituals to inculcate this idea - plus other days in the calendar on which we contemplate teshuva, as well. But that just wasn't good enough, someone, somewhere along the line just had to bring in a pagan blood ritual.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Kapporot are pagan and barbaric. But having Peta discuss this during the Rubbishcan battle adds grist to the mill of "it's a vast anti-Semitic vegan conspiracy."