Religious Slaughter Future is Playing Out in L.a. by fowlnews on Blogster

Remember.......

The Future of Religious Slaughter is Playing Out

You will notice the HSUS claims "religious practices and beliefs should be respected" and then clearly states "Ritual sacrifice of animals performed outside of regulated slaughterhouses is invariably cruel, and should be prosecuted as such" making the individual unable to pursue religious practices and beliefs unless performed within regulated slaughterhouses.

http://fowlnews.blogster.com/future_religious_slaughter.html

Now......

The Future of Religious Slaughter is Playing Out In L.A.

Hoo Boy: Ed Boks vs. the Jewish Chicken-Killers*

Tell me this situation isn't ripe for confrontation, condemnation and litigation:

In a bid to end the pre-Yom Kippur kapparot ceremony - ritually slaughtering a chicken to atone for one's sins - some organization calling itself "the Chickens of Los Angeles" just announced they're picketing a temple Sunday at 10 a.m..

Their target: Temple Ohel Moshe at 8644 Pico Blvd. (Here's the temple community's own kapparot page, which lets congregation members sign up on line for the ceremony).

The press release (.PDF here) quotes several activists and a former rabbi condeming the practice, and they're echoed by a statement from L.A. Animal Services Director Ed Boks:

"Some of our nation's healthiest animal husbandry practices and laws originated in the ancient traditions of the Torah. Nowhere is the practice of Kapparot even mentioned in the Torah. It is a pagan tradition that has been muddled into the religious practices of a small Jewish sect. Kapparot should have no place in the 21st Century Los Angeles community."

Wikipedia says of kapparot:

Kapparos or Kaparot is a traditional Jewish religious ritual that takes place around the time of the High Holidays. Classically, it is performed by swinging a live chicken around one's head three times, symbolically transferring one's sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor, to be eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast.

In modern times, Kapparos is performed in the traditional form mostly in Haredi communities. Members of other communities tend to perform this ritual with charity money substituted for the chicken, swung over one's head in similar fashion.

As the chicken (or money) is swung about the head, the following paragraph is traditionally recited:

This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. (This rooster will go to its death / This money will go to charity), while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.

Read The Entire Article At: http://www.lavoice.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2249

From The Jerusalem Post.........

Chicken ritual is foul, animal rights groups say
By NATHAN THRALL

An ancient ritual that has survived the opprobium of some of the most prominent halachic authorities is facing a modern activist movement, as animal rights groups challenge the pre-Yom Kippur practice of "kapparot."

The practice was being carried out across the country this week, as it has been for years.
On a hot afternoon in a semi-shaded alley of Jerusalem's Mea She'arim open-air market, two jaundiced hens squawked in the clutch of a stooped haredi man as he scuttled after an escaped rooster with his free, outstretched hand.

Read Entire Article At: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193339484&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull