Police, animal advocates and humane group volunteers rescued nearly 300 live chickens from two abandoned U-Haul trucks in Brooklyn over the weekend.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed that an independent group removed “a large number of chickens” apparently condemned to slaughter and brought them to an “undisclosed sanctuary.”
John Di Leonardo, president and executive director of Humane Long Island, said the NYPD reached out to animal advocacy volunteers on Friday, asking for assistance. Di Leonardo frequently works with law enforcement to rescue and relocate animals to sanctuaries.
“More than 300 chickens have been pulled from suffering and death in just a matter of days—and more than half of them came from two abandoned trucks filled with dead and dying birds,” he told amNewYork. “This should never be happening on the streets of New York City.”
He said that when he arrived at the scene on Winthrop Avenue in Flatbush on Sept. 18 with other volunteers, hundreds of birds were already dead, while 83 were severely injured and others were starving and dehydrated in the backs of the trucks.
On Saturday night, police visited 910 St. Johns Place in Crown Heights to find more chickens in inhumane conditions.
Chickens in a crate before slaughter.
The discovery came amid Kaporos (Kaparot), a pre-Yom Kippur custom among a small number of ultra-Orthodox sects in which a live chicken is swung overhead during prayer and then slaughtered to symbolize atonement of sins. Di Leonardo explained that an estimated 100,000 chickens are killed in Brooklyn alone this week as part of what is considered the “largest ritual animal sacrifice in the United States.”
Di Leonardo said he and his team are grateful to neighbors who spoke out against the slaughter, as well as the NYPD officers who took action.
“We are deeply grateful to the neighbors who spoke up and the NYPD officers who acted,” he said. “Now we need consistent enforcement across every precinct, a full investigation, and the arrest of those responsible for abandoning these animals.”
Photos shared with amNewYork showed chickens crammed into plastic crates, with little to no room to move. Many appeared to be bleeding, missing feathers or lying motionless.
Rina Deych is a Jewish animal advocate from Borough Park who leads the Kaporos Compassion Project. She has been working for over 30 years to stop the ritual, which she said “has nothing to do with Judaism.”
“It is not in the Torah,” Deych, who is a nurse, said. “[Many] rabbis are against it.”
This includes Yonassan Gershom, a Bresov Hasidic rabbi who has spoken out against the use of chickens in Kaporos rituals.
Di Leonardo with one of the saved birds.Photo courtesy John Di Leonardo
Like Di Leonardo, she views the practice as cruel and unnecessary.
“It’s really horrific,” Deych said. “Anybody who has any kind of compassion, a tiny drop, would be horrified by this.”
The volunteers at Kaporos Compassion Project have become unofficial “chicken experts,” triaging birds who survive the slaughter before transporting them to specialized veterinarians. From there, the birds are often placed in special sanctuaries where they can receive lifelong care.
Deych said she became a nurse because she does not like to see anyone, human or animal, suffer. She said it never gets easier to see what the animals endure.
“You never get used to it,” she said.