Hundreds of chickens abandoned in Brooklyn were facing what animal rights activists and police described as an “excruciatingly cruel” death, in a case believed to be connected to an Orthodox Jewish holiday ritual.
The first group, consisting of about 200 birds, was discovered Friday around 5 p.m. inside crates in an abandoned U-Haul on Winthrop Avenue between East 45th Street and Troy Avenue. Only about 80 chickens were still alive.
Not long afterward, activists and police found additional chickens in a second unattended U-Haul roughly 1½ miles away, at 910 St. Johns Place.
“This bothers me because it’s so excruciatingly cruel, and I cannot believe it’s still being done in this day and age,” said Rina Deych, founder of the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos.
“These chickens are squashed into crates, 10 to 18 in a crate, with 10 to 12 crates stacked on top of one another. They’re left there for days, and many of them die.”
Police said the disturbing discoveries are under investigation.
Only a small number of Orthodox Jews take part in Kaporos, a pre-Yom Kippur ritual in which a person waves a chicken—usually a chick—above their head by its wings, said Deych, who is Jewish.
“The slaughterer then turns the chicken upside down and slices its throat. These are baby chickens.”
According to Deych, participants believe the ritual symbolically transfers their sins to the chicken. She has campaigned for years to end the practice.
John Di Leonardo, president of the Humane Long Island Anthrozoologist & Wildlife Rehabilitator, claimed the ritual was not religious.
“People know about Santeria, they know about Voodoo, but they don’t know about this much larger sacrifice happening in their backyard,” he said.
Residents said they were disgusted and saddened by the discovery.
“The smell is so bad that I can’t even open my windows,” said Pamela Richards, 62, who lives near St. Johns Place.
“I looked out my window and there was a chicken walking on top of the truck this morning. Some of the chickens are alive and some are dead. I don’t know what to do.”
Neighbor Eddie Rosenberg described the scene as “horrific.”
“This is not a way to treat any living organism—it’s horrific,” he said. “I know that this is for a religious ceremony, but this is animal cruelty. The truck was covered by a tarp earlier; they were trying to hide their crimes.”
Robert Lapointe, who lives in a house directly behind the spot where the U-Haul was parked, said he was stunned to hear about the police discovery.
“I’ve never seen a truck full of dead chickens before,” he said. “I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 35 years.”
