Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Animal-rights group sues to end Hasidic chicken sacrifices
An animal-rights group is suing the city and several rabbis in a bid to save chickens from being sacrificed in a Hasidic Jewish ritual.
Every year, thousands of chickens are sacrificed by some Hasidic sects as part of the Yom Kippur observance.
In the atonement ritual, live birds are held aloft while a person's sins are symbolically transferred to the chickens before they are slaughtered, absolving observant Jews of their sins.
Organizers say the slaughtered chickens are donated to the poor.
But activists said the ceremony is barbaric, and have been protesting the practice in Brooklyn neighborhoods.
The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporas has filed suit against the city, the Health Department and several rabbis, seeking enforcement and fines to end the ritual.
The lawsuit charges that makeshift slaughterhouses used by observers are a "nuisance" and a "public-health risk."
Last year, feathers flew in Brooklyn when an animal-rights zealot tried to bust up the ritual by stealing a coop full of chickens.
Hesa Tushar, 39, allegedly swiped the birds from Borough Park in October.
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