{"id":353314,"date":"2026-09-22T08:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/353314\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T08:32:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:32:28","slug":"nypd-animal-advocates-find-hundreds-of-abused-chickens-in-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/353314\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD, animal advocates find hundreds of abused chickens in Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police, animal advocates and humane group volunteers rescued nearly 300 live chickens from two abandoned U-Haul trucks in Brooklyn over the weekend.\n<\/p>\n

An NYPD spokesperson confirmed that an independent group removed \u201ca large number of chickens\u201d apparently condemned to slaughter and brought them to an \u201cundisclosed sanctuary.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Di Leonardo, president and executive director of Humane Long Island<\/a>, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 300 chickens have been pulled from suffering and death in just a matter of days\u2014and more than half of them came from two abandoned trucks filled with dead and dying birds,\u201d he told amNewYork. \u201cThis should never be happening on the streets of New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, police visited 910 St. Johns Place in Crown Heights to find more chickens in inhumane conditions.\u00a0
\n\"chickensChickens in a crate before slaughter.\n<\/p>\n

The discovery came amid Kaporos<\/a> (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.\u00a0 Di Leonardo explained that an estimated 100,000 chickens are killed in Brooklyn alone this week as part of what is considered the \u201clargest ritual animal sacrifice in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grateful to the neighbors who spoke up and the NYPD officers who acted,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we need consistent enforcement across every precinct, a full investigation, and the arrest of those responsible for abandoning these animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rina Deych is a Jewish animal advocate from Borough Park who leads the Kaporos Compassion Project<\/a>. She has been working for over 30 years to stop the ritual, which she said \u201chas nothing to do with Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not in the Torah,\u201d Deych, who is a nurse, said. \u201c[Many] rabbis are against it<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This includes Yonassan Gershom<\/a>, a Bresov Hasidic rabbi who has spoken out against the use of chickens in Kaporos rituals.<\/p>\n

\"\"Di Leonardo with one of the saved birds.Photo courtesy John Di Leonardo<\/p>\n

Like Di Leonardo, she views the practice as cruel and unnecessary<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really horrific,\u201d Deych said. \u201cAnybody who has any kind of compassion, a tiny drop, would be horrified by this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The volunteers at Kaporos Compassion Project have become unofficial \u201cchicken experts,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never get used to it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police, animal advocates and humane group volunteers rescued nearly 300 live chickens from two abandoned U-Haul trucks in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,131762,75820,131763,131764,9,24,63,613,646],"class_list":["post-353314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-chickens","tag-humane-long-island","tag-kaporos","tag-kaporos-compassion-project","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-police-and-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}