ANIMAL rights protestors clashed with Orthodox Jews in New York over a religious ritual in which chickens are killed.
Both groups faced off against each other on the streets of Brooklyn when activists demanded an end to the ritual.
The confrontation came on the eve of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, when chickens are killed in what is known as the Kaporos ritual.
Tensions threatened to boil over as around 200 Orthodox Jews and 75 protesters threatened each other.
After the angry confrontation ended the ritual was a carried out by New York’s Jewish community as normal.
Yossi Ibrahim, 27, a member of the Orthodox Jews community, said: “No one has the right to change the religion, and this ruling proves we can’t be touched.”
No arrests were made but a similar demonstration in the Israeli city of Hadera left six people in hospital after violent clashes between Orthodox Jews and activists.
The Yom Kippur ritual is believed to cleanse Jews of their sins by transferring them to the animal.
But animal rights groups have denounced the practice as “disgraceful”.
The Brooklyn protest came just days after a group of activists lost their court battle to try and ban the 2,000-year-old Jewish ritual.
The Supreme Court Justice Debra James dismissed the local activist group’s claims and ruled that the Orthodox practice should proceed, despite the claims from angry animal rights protesters.
