The New York Daily News reported last night that attorneys for the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos have filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York County aiming to stop a Hasidic ritual that violates city and state health code laws and the state anticruelty statute.

“Dead chickens, half dead chickens, chicken blood, chicken feathers, chicken urine, chicken feces, other toxins and garbage . . . consume the public streets,” the lawsuit says, charging the New York City Police Department and Health Department with aiding and abetting the illegal practice of chicken Kaporos each year on the days immediately preceding Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Read the story and post a supportive comment:

Lawsuit aims to stop Jewish ritual that involves tossing, killing chickens on Brooklyn sidewalks

 

Kaporos practitioners in New York City prepare to swing starving, dehydrated, suffering chickens who are then slaughtered on the streets and discarded dead and alive in garbage bags. Photo by David Rosenfeld

 

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The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos is a project of United Poultry Concerns. Formed in New York City in June 2010, the Alliance is an association of groups and individuals who seek to replace the use of chickens in Kaporos ceremonies with money or other non-animal symbols of atonement. The Alliance does not oppose Kaporos per se, only the cruel and unnecessary use of chickens in the ceremony.