Animal Rights Activists Sue Over Yom Kippur Chicken-Swinging Rite
Image by getty images
An animal-rights group filed a lawsuit against the Irvine, California Police Department for not enforcing animal cruelty laws by halting a pre-Yom Kippur ritual.
The lawsuit filed this week is aimed at stopping Chabad of Irvine’s kapparot ceremony, a pre-Yom Kippur ritual in which a chicken is swung by its legs and then slaughtered.
It is the second attempt in recent years by the San Diego-based Animal Protection and Rescue League to halt the ceremony.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana nameAs both the Irvine police and the Los Angeles Police Department, saying that they protect the “illegal killing of animals” by not cracking down on the kapparot ceremonies, the Orange County Register reported.
A lawsuit filed by the group against Chabad in 2015 on the basis of animal cruelty said that the chickens are crammed tightly into cages and mishandled, and are disposed of and not used for food.
A federal judge in May dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Virginia-based United Poultry Concerns claiming that the practice violates the state’s unfair competition law.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
