TheirTurn.net
October 2018
New York State’s highest court, lawyers for New York City Mayor Bill Blasio’s administration defended the City’s decision to ignore animal cruelty violations and to assist in crimes being committed against animals.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio sent city lawyers to the court of Appeals to
defend his administration's decision to ignore animal cruelty violations and
to assist in crimes against animals committed during Kaporos.
On October 17th, in New York State’s highest court, lawyers for New York
City Mayor Bill Blasio’s administration defended the City’s decision to
ignore animal cruelty violations and to assist in crimes being committed
against animals. [See
New York State Court of Appeals Hears Arguments Against Chicken Kaporos.]
The case in front of the Court of Appeals centers around Kaporos, a ritual
animal sacrifice during which ultra-Orthodox Jews swing an estimated 60,000
six-week old chickens around their heads, slice their throats in open-air
slaughterhouses erected without permits, and dispose of them in garbage
bags, sometimes while they’re still alive. In 2017 and 2018, thousands of
chickens held in crates on the street died of hunger, thirst, disease and
heat exhaustion before the ritual even began.
In 2015, an advocacy group called the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos
and 19 NYC residents who live in neighborhoods that are contaminated by the
mass slaughter sued the City of New York, the NYC Department of Health and
the NYPD for failing to enforce the 15 public health, sanitation and
anti-cruelty laws and regulations that are violated during Kaporos. Nora
Constance Marino, the attorney for the plaintiffs, has been asking the
judicial branch of government to issue a “Writ of Mandamus,” which would
compel city agencies to enforce the laws.
During the arguments, the city’s attorney, Elina Druker, did not deny that
the animal cruelty laws or health codes are violated; she merely argued that
city agencies, not judges, have discretion over which laws they enforce. She
also argued that the city should decide how to allocate its resources.
Marino responded, “This is a farce. The resources are [already deployed]
there. There’s police everywhere during this event, facilitating the event,
assisting the event, aiding and abetting the event.” Marino continued,
“crimes are being committed, and the public health is being put at risk
here.”
After the oral arguments, advocates expressed their frustration with the city’s “ludicrous” claim. “The City wouldn’t have to invest any resources into enforcing the animal cruelty laws because the ritual wouldn’t be performed in the first place,” said Rina Deych, a plaintiff in the case against the city. “The NYPD would inform community leaders that, moving forward, they can no longer truck 60,000 chickens into Brooklyn and erect open-air slaughterhouses on the street due to the multiple city and state laws that are violated.”
When asked by one of the Court of Appeals judges why the city was aiding
and abetting in the crimes, Ms. Druker argued that, by providing a police
presence, the city was merely maintaining order. The advocates say this
response is also disingenuous.
“The NYPD provides massive flood lights and the orange traffic cones where
the chickens are bled out onto the street after their throats are slit,”
said Jill Carnegie with the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos. “If Druker
was being honest with the judges, she would have acknowledged that our tax
dollars are, in fact, being used to facilitate and partially underwrite this
illegal massacre.”
Advocates who attended the oral arguments noted the irony of the city’s
decision to defend crimes against animals. “When Bill de Blasio was running
for Mayor of New York City in 2013, he publicly stated that animal rights
would move into the mainstream if he was elected,” said Jessica Hollander,
an animal rights activist in NYC. “Yet, five years later, he is defending
animal torture in order to curry favor with the Orthodox Jewish voting bloc
that commits it.”
A decision in the case is expected in forty to ninety days.
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