Jews abuse live chickens in the pre-Yom Kippur ritual of kapparot, a silly superstition that promises by swinging a live chicken around one’s head, one’s sins are magically transferred to that chicken.

A lawsuit has been filed in a New York state trial court seeking to enjoin Brooklyn Jewish residents from organizing, conducting or participating in the pre-Yom Kippur ritual involving chickens.

The yearly ritual of Kapparot (also spelled as Kaporos or Kaparot) is a religious ritual in which certain Jewish groups needlessly and cruelly abuse and sacrifice chickens for human sin in the days preceding Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Not all Jews use chickens in the ceremony. In fact, many use bags of coins or other non-animal symbols of atonement to fulfill the pre-Yom Kippur ritual.

Defenders of the medieval ritual claim attempts to prevent the use of live chickens in kapparot is “an attack on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” which prohibits interfering with the free exercise of religion.

However, animal rights activists and other rational citizens argue that animal cruelty laws and public health codes trump religious exemptions. The fact that Kapparot sites in New York are connected to a religious ritual does not exempt it from laws that are being broken by Kapparot practitioners.

Animal rights organizations report that the birds are mistreated, confined for hours and even days in small cages, frequently without food and water, and often left outside in the sun. Activists argue that while the slaughter itself may enjoy religious protection, the attendant animal cruelties, sanitation and health code violations do not.

For more on the story see Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos.

(H/T Friendly Atheist)