Using chickens for ritual is the real sin

North Providence, R.I.: Yom Kippur is approaching, and the Kaporos rituals have begun in the streets of New York City. It involves swinging live chickens over participants’ heads before the birds are slaughtered. The practice has been criticized for years, but this year presents a new opportunity: New York has a new mayor, and Mayor Mamdani has the opportunity to address it.

Kaporos is intended to symbolize the transfer of one’s sins to a chicken. But Yom Kippur’s broader concept of teshuvah is about recognizing wrongdoing, taking responsibility and changing our conduct. If repentance asks us to confront the harm we cause others, what does it mean to deliberately cause harm as part of the process? The chicken bears no responsibility for the wrongdoing being symbolically transferred to it. The person receives the opportunity for atonement; the consequence is assigned elsewhere.

Working at an animal sanctuary, I’ve cared for many chickens and gotten to know their distinct personalities, preferences and unmistakable desire to live. That experience makes it impossible to view them simply as objects of ritual. There’s also the question of public safety. Every year, live chickens are confined and slaughtered at makeshift sites on Brooklyn streets and sidewalks. With Mamdani having appointed lifelong vegan Siddhartha Sanchez to lead the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, it’s time for him to make the slaughter of chickens for Kaporos illegal.

Manhattan: Every year before Yom Kippur, practitioners of the ritual slaughter of Kaporos erect makeshift slaughterhouses on public streets without........

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