This is kaporos.

“Do you know what the difference between you and me is?” snarled the bearded man to whom I had not said a single word and whose only word to me up to this point had been “faggot”.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I know who my mother and father are.”

You may be wondering what would compel a grown man to direct such a vitriolic comment at a complete stranger on a public sidewalk in New York City. The answer is quite simple: I had had the temerity to be present and to photograph this man as he waved two live chickens above the heads of his female companions (presumably his wife and daughter) during the ritual animal sacrifice known as kaporos.

This was my third year documenting kaporos in Brooklyn, so I’m no stranger to the hostility to outsiders that characterizes so many of the practitioners of this ancient and barbaric ritual. When I have documented kaporos in the past, I have been insulted, yelled at, and threatened, so I wasn’t expecting a warm reception this year. Nevertheless, the level of aggression at this year’s kaporos was palpably higher than in years past.

Of course, I could have left at any point and spared myself the frustration of being berated by (mostly unmasked) strangers; but as there was no possible escape for most of the unfortunate chickens for whom I had come to bear witness, I decided that I had no right to give myself any such easy way out of what was for me, an extremely unpleasant situation, but what for the animals, was a truly horrific one. So, I stayed and documented the event.

This is what I saw. This is kaporos.

A truck full of live chickens arrives at the site where the ritual slaughter will take place, a mostly residential neighborhood in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Once unloaded, the crates are piled on top of each other on the sidewalk. The job of retrieving the chickens from the crates and handing them to the congregants is entrusted, for the most part, to children. New York State law prohibits persons below the age of 18 to be employed in a slaughterhouse, but in this makeshift slaughter facility on a public sidewalk in New York City, this and other laws and ordinances are conveniently not enforced by the numerous NYPD officers who are present throughout the event. Mayor Bill de Blasio is also fully aware of what goes on at these events and has made no effort to stop them and every effort to accommodate them. The two words he invokes to defend his complicity in this primitive ritual of blood sacrifice are “religious freedom”. If he were speaking truthfully on the matter, however, the two words he would use are “voting bloc”.

Each of these crates contains about ten chickens. As the crates are emptied, new ones are brought in by truck to replenish the supply of victims.

A man waves two live and very distraught chickens above the heads of his female companions as they read a prayer that has been taped to one of numerous metal barricades thoughtfully provided by the New York City Police Department for this event that violates numerous state laws and local ordinances.

No apparent efforts are made to shield children from the unpleasantness and cruelty toward animals involved in kaporos. On the contrary, many of them are conscripted as participants in the antiquated and bloody ritual sacrifice. Most children exhibit a natural aversion to animal abuse, so it’s easy to imagine how upsetting it must be for many of them to witness it firsthand and perpetrated by people they know and trust.

Oh look, you just got a text message! It’s from the Dark Ages. They’d like their violent and obscurantist ritual back.

Notice the lack of feathers on this chicken’s breast and keel. Because these animals spend most of their short lives in filthy, crowded facilities that aren’t properly or frequently cleaned, they are forced to live in and directly on large quantities of excrement. Prolonged and direct exposure to the ammonia from all of that fecal matter literally burns the feathers off of parts of their bodies. Just try to imagine the pain it causes to their exposed skin.

The phrase that the practitioners of kaporos are supposed to say as they wave a chicken above their heads is “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This rooster (hen) will go to its [sic] death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.” The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is morally appalling, even when the “substitute” is a willing participant in the transaction. But when the substitute is an innocent, defenseless, and unconsenting victim, it’s even more appalling still. Why should someone who bears no responsibility whatsoever for someone else’s sins be sacrificed as an atonement for them?

These inverted traffic cones are where the chickens’ lives will end. After their throats are hastily slit, they are placed head-down into the cones and left to bleed out. Chickens sometimes manage to escape from the cones, even though they are mortally wounded. But their struggle is in vain. Once they’ve had the knife drawn across their throats, there is no hope of survival.

It’s difficult to imagine how stressful and terrifying this sadistic ritual must be for the tens of thousands of chickens who are abused and slaughtered in kaporos every year.

During a pandemic that has killed over a million people worldwide and over 23,000 in New York City alone, and which was caused by a zoonotic disease, the mayor of New York City, the feckless and almost universally despised Bill de Blasio, permits thousands of live birds to be stacked in crates on public sidewalks in the densely populated borough of Brooklyn. The threat to public health caused by this situation is of little or no apparent concern to Mr. de Blasio.

More crates of doomed birds

Almost without exception, the people who take part in kaporos hold the chickens as this person is doing: with the birds’ fragile wings pinned together behind their backs and held as one would hold a grocery bag. Every indication is that this is incredibly painful for the birds, especially when it happens, as it does often in kaporos, for prolonged periods.

This is a recording of chickens crying as they are lifted from crates by their sensitive wings.

I think this guy has a crush on me. He kept following me around and asking me questions as he filmed me with his phone. And for some reason, he kept yelling that I hate Jews, which was a lie. I don’t hate Jews. I hate animal abuse. He also made the slanderous and utterly false assertion that I stole a chicken. None of this is surprising. Anyone who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to abuse animals isn’t likely to have many scruples when it comes to defamation of character. Anyway, if you know this guy, please tell him that I’m flattered by all of his attention, but I’m just not interested. I don’t date non-vegans.

No one deserves to be treated like this. If you were in her position, wouldn’t you want someone fighting for you?

This photo is my tribute to the political legacy of Mayor Bill de Blasio. I call it “CHICKENSHIT”.

Some people think animal abuse is funny. It isn’t. Don’t be one of those people.

For some of the chickens slaughtered in this horrific ritual, there was at least some reprieve. In an effort organized by Slaughter-Free NYC, a group of animal rights activists came to the site of the kaporos ritual and gave water and fruit to as many of the birds as they could. Of course, this did not spare the birds the fate that awaited them, but it provided some solace and meant that these sensitive creatures wouldn’t die without having experienced some measure of human kindness.

An animal rights activist uses her phone to capture the plight of chickens destined for slaughter in kaporos.

What You Can Do

• If you live in New York City and you’re concerned by what you’ve seen in this blogpost, call 311 and let the city officials know that you find ritual animal sacrifice on public property unacceptable. When you call 311, you will be asked when and where the incident you’re reporting happened. All of the photos above were taken on Saturday, September 26th, 2020 on Eastern Parkway Boulevard and Kingston Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.

• If you know anyone who practices kaporos with a live chicken, please suggest the much more popular and humane alternative of using cash instead.

• Learn more about the effort to end the use of chickens in kaporos by visiting endchickensaskaporos.com and United Poultry Concerns.

• Support the work of Slaughter-Free NYC. These people work tirelessly to educate the public about the horrors of kaporos and other forms of animal abuse and slaughter in New York City.

• Don’t eat chickens. Chickens are the most exploited land animals on the planet. In the United States alone, 9 billion of them are killed for food every year, which is an average of 28 chickens for every man, woman, and child in the country, every single year. By not eating them, you remove the incentive for the producers of chicken-based products to keep breeding more of them into existence for the sole purpose of slaughter.

• Visit a sanctuary! Every year, animal liberation activists manage to rescue hundreds of chickens from kaporos sites around the world. Many of these birds wind up at amazing sanctuaries, where they receive top-notch veterinary care and lots and lots of TLC. At sanctuaries such as Tamerlaine Animal Sanctuary and Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, you can meet and get to know chickens who have been rescued from kaporos rituals and are now living happy, healthy lives with other chickens and their human guardians.

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All text and images Copyright 2020, Vegan Future Now

A Visit to Tamerlaine Farm Animal Sanctuary

Situated in a lush stand of trees in Montague Township, New Jersey, about two hours from Manhattan, is Tamerlaine Farm Animal Sanctuary, home to nearly two-hundred chickens, turkeys, goats, ducks, pigs, and other nonhuman animals rescued from a variety of exploitative industries, but mostly from those that supply meat and eggs to American consumers. In stark contrast to the squalor, abuse, and confinement from which many of them were rescued, at Tamerlaine, these animals enjoy the freedom to move about, socialize, play, and express their individuality. But Tamerlaine isn't just a sanctuary for animals: it's also a haven for people who love them, as I found out on a recent trip to Tamerlaine, organized by the good folks at Animal Connection. 

Last Sunday morning, I boarded a bus in Midtown Manhattan and, along with about seventy other animal-loving New Yorkers, made the trip to Montague Township to visit Tamerlaine; enjoy the company of its resident goats, chickens, turkeys, and pigs; and, eat as many vegan empanadas as I could without making the other guests uncomfortable or causing the pigs to feel inadequate. 

Here are some highlights from the visit:

Located on several beautiful and well-maintained acres, Tamerlaine is a serene, peaceful refuge. 

This is Bubblegum, one of several goats rescued from a "Farm to Table" operation in Westfield, Massachusetts. Many people who consider themselves "conscientious omnivores" make a point of avoiding meat that comes from factory farms, and consume only meat that is the product of small-scale farming operations that market themselves as healthy, sustainable, and ethical alternatives to factory farms. The truth, however, is that as far as the well-being of the animals is concerned, many of these farms are just as bad as, and often worse than, factory farms. When the goats who now live at Tamerlaine were rescued, many of them were sick, all were emaciated, and the farm on which they were being raised was strewn with the decaying bodies of other animals who had died from neglect, disease, and starvation.    

This is Merci. She's one of several turkeys at Tamerlaine who was rescued from the meat trade. In commercial turkey-farming operations, which are concerned primarily with maximizing profits per square foot of space, turkeys are routinely mutilated, crammed together in huge windowless sheds, and killed when they are between five and six months old. In their natural habitat, turkeys can live to be ten years old, so turkeys raised for meat are slaughtered when they have reached only a fraction of their natural age. At Tamerlaine and other reputable sanctuaries, these gentle birds receive all the veterinary care they need, plenty of space, and lots of TLC.  

This is Artie. He's a potbelly pig who used to be someone's pet. When he failed to stop growing, he was given up by his guardians and he now lives an incredibly contented life with ample space to root around and no shortage of eager human hands to administer (pot)belly-rubs. Most pigs aren't as lucky as Artie, however. In the United States alone, 115,000,000 pigs are slaughtered annually for food. Untold tens of thousands more die from disease and stress before ever reaching the slaughterhouse, and their bodies are often simply ground up and fed to other pigs.   

If you've never given a belly-rub to a pig, you owe it to yourself to schedule one ASAP.  Artie's secretary is standing by. :)

This is Jacob, a Cornish rooster. Of all the terrestrial animals bred, raised, and slaughtered for food in the United States and around the world, the chicken is by far the most exploited and abused. According to United Poultry Concerns, chickens and turkeys constitute 99% of all land animals raised and slaughtered for food in the United States, and upwards of nine-billion chickens are slaughtered every year in the U.S. alone. Chickens raised for meat are typically killed when they are between twenty-eight and forty-one days old, but in their natural habitats, chickens can live for up to fifteen years. The chickens at Tamerlaine are beautiful examples of how well these intelligent animals can thrive when they are given adequate space, proper care, and the ability to establish and live within a natural social structure.

The holes in Bubblegum's ears are vestiges of his former life on a "Farm to Table" operation and reminders of the status of all animals bred and raised for food: that of a commodity. It is customary throughout the animal farming industry to tag or otherwise mutilate the ears of animals such as cows, goats, and pigs, for easy identification and to allow farmers to determine at a glance who is ready to be shipped to slaughter.

This is Fawn. Her ear tags were removed, and she is now happy and healthy, but she still bears the scars left by those who bred her into existence for the sole purpose of profiting off of her dismembered body.

There is no reason that the relationship between human beings and our nonhuman brothers and sisters should be one characterized by tyranny, exploitation, and oppression. Our superiority of strength and brain-power does not confer upon us the right to exploit and abuse nonhuman animals or to treat them like objects, commodities, and machines. Until we have recognized our kinship and equality with animals, and have resolved to treat them with the dignity, gentleness, and respect that they deserve, we have not realized our own moral potential.  (The rooster in the photo is Alvin.)

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If you live in the New York/New Jersey area, I encourage you to pay a visit to Tamerlaine Farm Animal Sanctuary, where you can meet some of these amazing animals in person. Please also consider supporting the work they do by either making a donation, or by purchasing some of their merchandise. 

If you live outside the NY/NJ area, please consult Vegan.com's farm animal sanctuary directory, which, though not 100% comprehensive, is still an excellent resource for anyone interested in visiting or supporting a sanctuary. 

All images Copyright 2017, Vegan Future Now