Kaporos with Chickens: Can We Find a More Humane Alternative?

“It used to be, once upon a time, you lived in a little shtetl. Before Yom Kippur, you used to take your chicken out of your backyard. You used to take it and do it, but not to bring as a mass slaughtering on the streets. And that’s why I think it’s not right.”

These remarks, which were delivered into my iPhone camera by a Haredi man at a Kaporos site, may seem, well, unremarkable, but to me and the other animal rights activists protesting the ritual, they were a bombshell. Until then, we didn’t think that people in the Haredi community would speak out against the use of chickens as Kaporos. And we didn’t know we had allies who could potentially bring about change from within. The moment was validating, and it gave us hope. 

Just a few days later, another Haredi man spoke out against the ritual into his own phone camera and posted the video in a WhatsApp group. Pointing to live chickens languishing in crates, he said, “I understand it’s a tradition, but what is the offense for these poor chickens? Tzar’ar ba’alei chayim, cruelty for animals, is forbidden by the Torah. I do not tolerate this. I’m sorry. If this is a tradition, let’s keep humanity within tradition.”

“I understand it’s a tradition, but what is the offense for these poor chickens? Tzar’ar ba’alei chayim, cruelty for animals, is forbidden by the Torah. I do not tolerate this. I’m sorry. If this is a tradition, let’s keep humanity within tradition.”

When challenged by a fellow observant Jew who was walking by, he said, “So these chickens are going to starve out the night. This is a problem. Tzar’ar ba’alei chayim. Protest.”

Protest? Did he just say protest? And did he post the video knowing that people outside of the insular Haredi world, including animal rights activists, might see it? Whatever the case may be, this man’s testimonial was also validating, as he was making our points for us. 

Kaporos is a pre-Yom Kippur ritual during which practitioners twirl a live chicken around their heads while reciting a passage from the Shulchan Aruch (code of Jewish law) asking God to forgive their sins. After the chickens are used in the ritual, shochets slaughter them and either process them into food or dispose of them, depending on the Kaporos site. Jewish opponents of the ritual argue that it violates “Tza’ar ba’alei chayim,” a Torah mandate that prohibits Jews from unnecessarily harming animals.

The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, an animal advocacy group, has been protesting Kaporos for 14 years in an effort to convince practitioners to use substitutes for live chickens. The Alliance and its supporters oppose Kaporos not only because of the cruelty associated with the ritual and slaughter, but also because of the pain and suffering endured by the chickens in the days and hours leading to it.

Before Yom Kippur, tens of thousands of six-week-old chickens are packed into transport crates, loaded onto flatbed trucks and brought into Brooklyn from factory farms in upstate New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Normally, animals who are killed for food are transported directly to the slaughterhouse, where they are put out of their misery. The chickens used as Kaporos, however, can spend up to several additional days intensively confined in the crates.

Over the years, advocates with the Alliance have taken photos and videos of hundreds of chickens who, before being used in the ritual, died from thirst, sickness, broken bones and exposure to weather extremes. Because the transport crates, which are covered in feces and urine, are kept outside, most of the chickens have no protection from heat, cold and rain. As a result, many die from heat exhaustion and hypothermia, and their bodies are often left in the crates with the living. 

Those who survive the inhumane conditions in the transport crates — which are the majority — are subjected to the cruelty and indignity of the ritual itself. Practitioners grab the weakened chickens out of the crates, pin their fragile wings behind their backs and swing them around their heads. As demonstrated by their frantic vocalizations, the final moments of their lives are filled with fear and pain.

From 2010 to 2017, dozens of activists, including me, protested at the Kaporos sites in Brooklyn, chanting phrases like, “Depriving chicks of food and water, stop Kaporos chicken slaughter.” We were loud. We were disruptive. And we were unsuccessful. Some of us wonder if we did more harm than good. Although many of us are Jewish, we didn’t know that Haredi communities vehemently reject the efforts of outsiders to influence their behavior. 

Starting in 2018, we adapted our approach. Instead of protesting, we now engage in chicken care, providing as many birds as possible with food and water. This approach not only enables us to nourish some of the chickens and show them a moment of kindness, but it also demonstrates to the practitioners that the chickens are living, feeling creatures who share some of the same basic needs as us. Some of the practitioners are now watching us with compassion instead of contempt. 

What the practitioners do not see are the hundreds of chickens who activists rescue each year. In the days leading to Yom Kippur, animal rescuers round up hundreds of chickens, bring them to a triage center where they receive care for acute injuries, and load them into cars to be transported to animal sanctuaries around the country. The chickens who have broken bones are first taken to the vet for surgery. While some of the rescued chickens don’t survive, those who do can live for six or more years in a natural setting surrounded by other chickens and the humans who gave them a second chance.

To the delight of the animal rights activists, the stand-up comedian Modi, who has a large Jewish following around the world, pokes fun at the ritual on stage. “Anytime we tell people who aren’t Jewish the crazy things we do, they’re so accepting, aren’t they? ‘So you swing the chicken over your head three times. All your sins go in the chicken. The chicken dies. Makes sense.’” Only Modi isn’t joking. 

In February, Modi invited me onto his podcast, And Here’s Modi, to have a serious discussion about the practice. After giving me the chance to explain why the ritual is inhumane, he called on his listeners who use chickens to swing coins instead, which is how many observant Jews already perform the ritual. 

After the podcast, Modi pulled me aside to say that several Kaporos practitioners have told him in recent years that they made the switch to coins. When he asked them why, they said it was our advocacy. In that moment, he could have knocked me over with a (chicken) feather. Perhaps our chicken care events were having an impact. 

Change might take place slowly in the Haredi world, but Modi’s feedback gave me hope for a day when every observant Jew partakes in a kind Kaporos.

Donny Moss has been a campaign organizer and leader in the Animal Rights Movement for the past 19 years.