PETA V. Kapparot, Round 2: Chabad Kapparot Operation Cited For Alleged Animal Welfare, Health, Safety Violations

It's almost kapparos time, and PETA is again launching a campaign to clean up animal abuse usually involved in the ritual.

For those of you who don't know, kapparos, a ritual which involves…

… waving a chicken over one's head while reciting an incantation, is meant to 'transfer' one's sins to the bird, which is then slaughtered. The sight of the bird losing its life is supposed to bring you to repentance.

For years, kapparos have involved poorly transported birds, often denied food and water for days and crammed overstuffed into small cages.

It is common for many birds to die in transport and while awaiting slaughter.

Last year, under pressure from PETA, haredi rabbis finally cracked down on fly-by-night kapporos operators and – somewhat – improved the process.

The key word here is somewhat.

PETA is citing one kapparos operation for specific problems related to animal handling, storage, pre and post-slaughter health and safety issues, and more.

The kapparos operation?

The one run by Chabad's National Committee For The Furtherance of Jewish Education in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY.

Here's a link to PETA's video of the NCFJE kapparos operation.

Here's the JTA's breaking news report.

The NCFJE's Rabbi Shea Hecht has not yet responded to my request for an interview.

Comments

[Carol Ann Varley]

How can this practice not violate state animal slaughter laws? Particularly, if the dead chickens are donated for consumption?

Also, who wants to eat a sin-infested chicken?

[David F.]

There is no form of shechita or kapparos that would ever satisfy PETA. They will always find a way to make emotionally charged propaganda to put any animal use in the worst possible light.

As one might expect, this video is spliced together from multiple sources without any useful contextual information. It is even conveniently post-dated "Kapporos Ritual Brooklyn NY 09/2008!"

I sincerely hope that kapparos standards are improved within the communities that value this tradition.

PETA is not a credible partner in any good-will effort to improve animal treatment. I would be more interested in hearing advice from Dr. Grandin, or other experts who respect religious traditions.

[Rachel Batya]

I watched the PETA video--where to begin? I'll just say something about the issue of tza'ar ba'alei chayim.

Transporting large numbers of chickens packed tightly together, crate above crate, means that the chickens are covered in each other's excrement, and many suffocate. This is clear from the video, (and is common on large factory farms). Add to this the fact that chickens are easily frightened creatures, and will pile on top of each other when they hear a loud, sudden noise. It is not unusual for farmers to lose chickens to suffocation in this way because of trucks backfiring, or children who rush toward the chickens in glee in a henhouse, or even the sound of a loud human voice. Thousands of tightly packed chickens on the streets of Brooklyn, with people milling around and grabbing at them, with the noise, with the chaos--and these tightly packed chickens, whose instinct is to run from even the slightest appearance of danger, can't move at all. Causing that kind of terror to an animal that is, for all intents and purposes, completely immobilized, is beyond cruel.

But I was really shocked to see the animals being held by the wings and then swung around the person's head. By the wings is the worst way to hold a chicken. The wings can easily break and come through the skin, especially when city folks who know nothing about chickens try it for themselves. There are many other ways that you can hold a chicken so as to calm it that cause no pain to the animal at all. If you're going to "transfer your sins" to a chicken, it might be a good idea to not commit more sins in the handling of it.

But, by far, my very, very favorite part, was when the guy in the video is holding the chicken by the wings, the chicken is squawking its head off in pain, and the fellow yells at it to "shut up" just before he starts swinging it over his head. Such respect. Such holiness. I feel so inspired. Really.

[Rachel Batya]

--How can this practice not violate state animal slaughter laws? Particularly, if the dead chickens are donated for consumption?--

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I can't believe that the chickens are donated for consumption. Once a chicken is shechted and has bled out, you have to pluck and gut it within a reasonably short amount of time, and then pack it in ice. And the chickens in the video are lying five layers deep, and are being put in trash bags, on a street in Brooklyn, in September, which means that they're not cooling off at all.

Maybe there's very efficient plucking, gutting, and icing going on off-camera. If anyone knows what happens after the shechting, please tell us.

I'm also curious as to where the bed of earth is located on which the blood is to be buried. The chickens are unceremoniously thrown on a heap after being shechted. Where's the earth? Under the sidewalk?

My guess is that if these chickens are being sold at all, it's for fertilizer.

[pulitzer4shmarya]

I know someone who works for the ASPCA enforcement division. Last year (or the year before that) they actually arrested the people who were organized the kaparos because of the mistreatment of the chickens. The people who were arrested for the animal mistreatment were let off with a desk ticket instead of having to go to central booking as would ordinarily be the case, in violations such as these.
This was due to political interventions by Brooklyn high connected Jewish leaders.
Certainly I don't wish jail on anyone, but actions such as these, where Jewish leaders protect criminals regardless of crimes, lead to bad feelings between officers of the law and the ultra-orthodox community.

[Rachel Batya]

I just re-read the PETA letter about all this. It says that the shechted chickens lay in a heap for several hours, and then were trucked to a processing plant. The person writing the letter was concerned about the health of the meat, and rightly so. Letting dead chickens sit around for several hours isn't exactly conducive to the safety of the food. If that's what's happening, I can't see how the chickens could end up as anything other than fertilizer--or maybe pet food, but even that is questionable.

[steve]

Like the guy who left hundreds of live chickens on the empty lot in Brooklyn two years ago. He bought too many of them and he didn't know what to do with them, so he abandoned them.

[Rachel Batya]

--Like the guy who left hundreds of live chickens on the empty lot in Brooklyn two years ago. He bought too many of them and he didn't know what to do with them, so he abandoned them.--

What ended up happening to the chickens?

[sage]

Kapparos Inversus

Why not one year have Kapparos Inversus.

A large number of chickens would be sent to the gym where they would gain a great deal of muscle mass and strength.

At the Kapparos ceremony, they would pick up the Chabad Rabbis by the head and wave them around several times.

After the Rabbis have recovered, there would be some serious thinking and that would be the end of Chicken Kapparos for good.

[steve]

What ended up happening to the chickens?

PETA files complaint against Brooklyn man for dumping chickens

By Jeremiah Horrigan
Times Herald-Record
jhorrigan@th-record.com

An Orthodox Jewish man from Brooklyn has been accused of animal cruelty in connection with the abandonment of hundreds of chickens intended for Yom Kippur atonement rituals.

A Williamsburg man was named in a complaint filed by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals after crates containing more than 300 chickens were found abandoned in a Coney Island Avenue lot last month.

Authorities said nearly three dozen chickens died. When the crates were discovered, the chickens were shipped to the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties.

A Manhattan ASPCA spokesman said at the time the broilers had been purchased to be used in an atonement ritual called "kapparot" that requires a man or woman to wave a live chicken over their head while reciting a prayer. The chicken is then slaughtered and given to the poor.

The man reportedly told ASPCA investigators he was unable to find customers for the birds.

At least another dozen chickens died en route to the Catskill Animal Sanctuary, according to director Kathy Stevens. CAS employees have nursed the surviving chickens back to health and farmed many of them out to individuals and other animal protection groups that specialize in farm animal rehab.

"We'll keep about 20 of the chickens here, which is what we can manage," Stevens said yesterday.

The chicken rescue is short-lived by the nature of the birds themselves, which have been genetically altered to maximize their size for human consumption. Most of these broilers die within a year of being hatched, while other breeds can live as long as a decade.

[Rachel Batya]

--The chicken rescue is short-lived by the nature of the birds themselves, which have been genetically altered to maximize their size for human consumption. Most of these broilers die within a year of being hatched, while other breeds can live as long as a decade.--

Steve, thanks for posting the article. Unfortunately, the situation must have been even worse than the article describes. Meat birds can't last anywhere close to a year and their deaths are not pretty.

The first year we had meat chickens, I couldn't bring myself to shecht them. I decided to let them live. We got a dozen of them in June, and by September, we began finding dead chickens in the barn on a regular basis. The last ones were gone by December.

The lucky ones died of stroke. The unlucky ones had gotten so big that their legs had gone out from under them and they couldn't move. No matter how close we put them to the grain and water, they ended up dying of starvation and dehydration.

That's when I decided it was more merciful to shecht them.

[PishPosh]

"Kapparos Inversus"

Sage, good one. Nice to go to work laughing rather then oyying.

[One cup of Judaism, please. Hold the paganism, thank you.]

There is no form of shechita or kapparos that would ever satisfy PETA.

There is also no form of kapparot that is not some silly, worthless, superstitious, pagan practice that has contaminated Judaism, either.

[sage]

Glad to hear, Pish Posh, that I helped make your day.

A little levity, now and then, helps preserve one's sanity.

[Rachel Batya]

--Sage, good one. Nice to go to work laughing rather then oyying.--

Amen to that! Nice work, sage.

[Rachel Batya]

--There is no form of shechita or kapparos that would ever satisfy PETA.--

That is certainly true, and I'm not a big PETA fan, especially after their letter to Arafat and their response to the criticism it engendered. But the images on the video were very compelling evidence of some very bad practices. I'm with you in hoping that Temple Grandin will be invited to help them clean up their act.

[pulitzer4shmarya]

halachic question...
If an animal wont live for another year doesnt it have the din of being a trayfa or a gosses?
I dont remember much?

[Peta (People for Eating Tasty Animals)]

I think we should take the peta people and wave them around our heads as Kapparot. The are absurd individuals who are out of touch with reality. While I do not condone the abuse of animals, I do think that Peta exaggerate the issue. Standards should be upheld to ensure not wanton abuse occurs, however people shouldn't trust Peta.

[One cup of Judaism, please. Hold the paganism, thank you.]

think we should take the peta people and wave them around our heads as Kapparot. The are absurd individuals who are out of touch with reality.

PETA are absurd individuals out of touch with reality? Maybe, they lost my support after with the euthenasia revelations, already damaged by their Arafat letter . . .

But, we're talking about people waving chickens over their heads and then killing the chickens in some mock attonement ceremony that is nothing but pagan-derived superstition with no place in Judaism.

While PETA may be "absurd individuals who are out of touch with reality," so are the practitioners of kapporot, as well.

[R]

I don't think they should do kaparot with birds. The whole point of it is gone anyway and i have only seen it once on a very small scale (with two chickens being stuck in a tiny cage being bashed around the boot of a car everytime they hit a bump or turned) and it made me sick to see it then and it's when i decided i would never do kaparot with a bird even if i had the chance to. So i do it with money and give the money to charity.

[Rachel Batya]

halachic question...
If an animal wont live for another year doesnt it have the din of being a trayfa or a gosses?

If I understand your question: If a meat chicken is a trayfa because it wouldn't live a year, then there is no kosher chicken in the US. All meat chickens are bred to eat and drink a great deal and to grow extremely quickly. At 8 weeks, you have a 6-7 pound chicken. We've shechted at 12 weeks (which is very late) and gotten 10-12 pound chickens. I don't think the big farms wait nearly that long. They would lose far too many chickens.