Animal cruelty and the ritual of kapparot

DAVID BILCHITZ & CANDY RISTIC

In recent years, there has been a revival among some communities of the use of live chickens to perform the ritual of kapparot. Kapparot is a ceremony which takes place before Yom Kippur in which the sins of a person are symbolically transferred on to a fowl (or a substitute object such as money).

The animal is then slaughtered and the meat given to the poor. The origins of the ceremony are neither in the Torah or the Talmud and its earliest record is in post-Talmudic 9^th Century religious writings. The practice was controversial since its inception with famous halachic authorities such as the Rambam and Joseph Caro opposing it, the latter banning it as a foolish custom that Jews should avoid. Other authorities permitted it and many Ashkenazi communities, in particular, continued the practice.

The conditions under which chickens are raised today, however, provide strong modern objections to the practice from a Jewish and humanitarian point of view. It is very difficult (if not impossible) to perform the practice as a lay person without harming the chickens concerned.
Why is this so? It is necessary to recognise that the chickens used in kapparot are of two kinds. The layers (egg-producing chickens) have been subjected to at least a year of being crammed into cages no bigger than the size of an A4 page with multiple chickens per cage. After being cleared from the cages, they often are not provided with food or water: The chickens that arrive at Kapparot ceremony may thus be starving and thirsty and are often kept for long periods in small cages.
The broilers (meat-producing chickens) have been genetically modified so that they grow to be ready for slaughter after six weeks or less. These are essentially over-sized baby chickens whose bones are brittle and weak, and whose legs struggle to support their bodies. For a lay person to handle either of these types of chickens has a strong likelihood of causing dislocation of limbs, and broken bones. It is also traumatic for the chickens.
For these reasons, it is very likely that kapparot will lead to a transgression of the serious prohibition on causing animals to suffer (Tzaar Ba’alei Chayim) just prior to Yom Kippur. For this reason, Orthodox authorities such as Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Yitzchak Kadouri and Shlomo Aviner came out publicly against using live animals for kapparot and encouraged the use of money instead.

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Chicken Rescue and Rehabilitation South Africa has seen first-hand some of the chickens harmed by kapparot. We would therefore encourage people not to run the risk of causing harm and distress to innocent animals just prior to Yom Kippur by desisting from the use of live chickens. If your community persists in using live animals, we would encourage you to contact Chicken Rescue (details below) who will guide you in the way to handle the animals in such a way that will minimise the harms to these beautiful and defenceless creatures.

Prof David Bilchitz and Candy Ristic
Chicken Rescue and Rehabilitation South Africa