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Hundreds of abandoned chickens in Brooklyn were headed for an “excruciatingly cruel” death believed to be tied to an Orthodox Jewish holiday ritual when they were found by animal rights activists, cops and advocates said.
The first group of 200 birds – just 80 of them were still alive – were discovered in crates Friday in an abandoned U-Haul on Winthrop Avenue between East 45th Street and Troy Avenue around 5 p.m.
Soon after, more chickens were found in a second unattended U-Haul about a mile and a half away at 910 St. Johns Place, activists and cops said.
“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 and stacked 10 to 12 crates high. They’re left there for days and many of them die.”
Police said they are investigating the gruesome findings.
Only a small number of Orthodox Jews perform Kaporos, the pre-Yom Kippur ritual that entails a person waving the chicken – usually a chick – above their head by the wings, Deych, who is Jewish, said.
““The slaughterer then turns the chicken upside down and slices its throat. These are baby chickens.”
Jews who participate in the ritual believe it symbolically transfers their sins to the chicken, according to Deych, who has been fighting to stop the practice for years.
John Di Leonardo, president of the Humane Long Island Anthrozoologist & Wildlife Rehabilitator, claimed the ritual wasn’t even 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.
Neighbors were disgusted and saddened by the news.
“The smell is so bad that I can’t even open my windows,” admitted Pamela Richards, 62, who lives near St. John’s 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 called it “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 right behind where the U-Haul was parked, was shocked to learn of the cops’ gruesome discovery.
“I’ve never seen a truck full of dead chickens before,” he said. “I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 35 years.”
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