In response to severe cases of tzaar baalei chaim in
places where kaporos were held before Yom Kippur
— such as withholding food and water, caging them in
miserable conditions and abandoning bird carcasses in the
streets and garbage bins — Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky
has issued a directive again this year to boost enforcement
and informational campaigns to prevent cruelty to animals.
In recent weeks the Mayor and City Councilman Rabbi Shlomo
Rubinstein, who is in charge of public health services, spoke
with local rabbonim and figures involved in the matter. After
presenting the data, HaRav Eliyohu Shlesinger, the rov of
Gilo and the halachic authority for the Religious Council,
called on the public to take part only in kaporos at
marketplaces overseen by the Municipal Veterinarian
Services.
"Complete negligence takes place at the kaporos," read
the notice HaRav Shlesinger issued. "People take chickens and
leave them for days at a time without food or water. The
chickens are taken from one place where kaporos were
already held to another place where they have not been held.
Eventually the chickens are thrown in the trash because
there's nobody to take them to be shechted. As a
result we are asking the entire public to do kaporos
only in places that have been authorized by the municipality
and which are under its supervision."
Inquiries conducted in past years reveal that many of the
suppliers of chickens for kaporos do not adhere to the
veterinary requirements for transporting and caging poultry
birds destined for shechitoh and many are taken from
one location to another, deliberately deceiving the
public.
