Religious Rituals: Killing of chickens and turkeys

An ultra-Orthodox man performs a Jewish ritual called Kaparot in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sept. 10.
In the ancient custom of Kaparot, still performed by some Jews today, a white chicken is held over a person's head as prayers are recited that symbolically transfer the person's sins accumulated through the year into the bird. The chicken is butchered in a kosher manner and either donated to charity or eaten. It's performed ahead of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest of Jewish holidays, which begins at sundown on Sept. 13. -- European Pressphoto Agency

I feel sorry for the poor chicken. It not only takes on the burden of the sins of the person but then it is killed and eaten. It is like poor turkeys who give their lives by the millions and for us it is Thanksgiving - what is for turkeys - a mass-murder? 

See more pictures of Kaparot ritual here.

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