Q&A: LEAP Student Fellow Emily Brookfield Discusses Research on Animal Death and Religious Ritual

Emily Kate Brookfield graduated from Yale Divinity School in 2026 with her Master of Divinity. While at Yale, she was a Law, Environment & Animals Program student grantee and student fellow. In this Q&A, Brookfield discusses her research report, “The Ethics and Legality of Animal Death and Religious Ritual.”

Her report looks at the Jewish practice of Kapparot, which, according to Chabad.org, “consists of carefully passing a chicken over one’s head three times while reciting the appropriate text. The chicken is then slaughtered in a humane fashion in accordance with the laws of kashrut. The chicken itself is discreetly donated to a charitable cause, such as a yeshiva or orphanage, where it is eaten just as any other chicken. Alternatively, the chicken is sold and its value donated.” 

Could you describe your research project and what inspired it? 

I am interested in how we ought to respect individuals’ cultural rituals and their right to free exercise of religion while also prioritizing animal welfare. I was curious about the Kapparot in particular because it incorporated some discussion of theological concepts that I had learned at Yale Divinity School, like the sacrificial processes described in Leviticus. Also, given that the Kapparot is publicly performed and protested in various U.S. cities, the ritual presents interesting inquiries regarding the freedom of speech. 

Your project examines sensitive tensions between deeply held religious beliefs and animal rights advocacy in a time of rising antisemitism. How did you approach finding interviewees, designing interview questions, and conducting interviews? 

I designed my interviews with the hopes to learn about the significance of the ritual for participants. My conversations with rabbis were not critiques but rather opportunities for inquiry and discussion about the role of animals in their traditions. I was able to workshop my interview questions with scholars and members of various religions.

I primarily asked participants to speak to the religious significance of the ritual (or the lack thereof, depending on the participant) through personal connections or public forums in which rabbis expressed approval or disapproval of the Kapparot as performed with chickens. I found legal professionals to interview through examining present and past litigation on the issue and reaching out to those who had been involved. 

You write in your report: “But a focus on whether or not the Kapparot is religiously ‘required’ obscures the purpose of religious ritual. Also, one might ask, required for what?” What roles do rituals play in our lives, and how does the role of ritual vary between different religions?

There is deliberation over what the role of religious ritual is in the lives of humans. Rituals, along with belief, often are the root of moral community, or a place in which humans may find solidarity or camaraderie with others. Rituals can be “religious,” or dealing with the supernatural or intending to communicate with a higher power, but this is not a requirement. Robert Bellah, for example, describes a certain “civil religion” of America, in which individuals participate in rituals that allow them to unite with others. A presidential inauguration may act as a ritual in this “religion.” 

There are differences between rituals across different religions, cultures, and geographies, but I think this question is best assessed at a narrower level. As it relates to the Kapparot, I think many people scoff at its existence, when in reality, many of the most popular rituals in America, “religious” or not, are surprising or perhaps unintuitive on the surface, too. Yet, these rituals are events that allow us to connect with those around us — and those performing the Kapparot often highlighted this social connection in their interviews.  

Could you talk about how a religious ritual may or may not be influenced by the way the animals involved are treated, including where and how they are raised?

Interviewees were often hesitant to speak on the particularities of where the chickens come from. I think it’s important to note that not all people practicing the Kapparot with chickens source their chickens from factory farms. But, some did say that, in instances of the Kapparot that they were familiar with, the chickens did come from factory farms to the best of their knowledge.

In some historical contexts, the animals used in religious rituals were treated rather well. Many scholars think this is the case for animals used in sacrifices in the Temple. According to Jonathan Klawans, a scholar of the literature of ancient Judaism, a metaphor was at play in animal husbandry: God cares for humans as they care for their flock. Though “sacrifice” as depicted in Leviticus essentially ended with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., many participants in the ritual whom I spoke to, theologically and practically, saw connections to ancient modes of sacrifice. 

That being said, I think the sourcing of chickens from factory farms may be a practical reality for religious communities living in cities in modernity. When a community wants or needs a large amount of birds, they will seek institutions that have those large numbers. Some people I spoke to prioritized the ritual’s cultural significance over the life of the bird, as many non-Jewish people do with rituals that revolve around animals and food. 

An estimated 50,000 chickens are killed in Kapparot yearly in New York City, a tiny percentage (around 0.00056%) of the over 9 billion chickens that are killed in the United States annually. The overwhelming majority of those chickens are raised in factory farms. Do you think it makes sense for animal activists to focus on a range of topics, including Kapparot, or should activists focus solely on conditions in factory farms? 

I think certain topics may act as a gateway for individuals to become invested in animal welfare. For example, the instances of the Kapparot that I researched were public, with many New Yorkers protesting the event or responding in shock to the ritual. I think part of this shock is rooted in many Americans’ lack of closeness to animal death. For that reason, I think that events like the Kapparot are helpful for having discussions about how and why people care about animals, and there are ways to have those discussions that are respectful to those who partake in the ritual. These conversations must also include deliberation of practices like factory farming, so as to not solely criticize a particular religious group in one’s advocacy. 

Did this project spark any potential future research projects for you? 

I am intending to expand the project to further examine the language used by animal lawyers to describe religion. This project has also prompted research into forms of Halal slaughter.