Protestors are rallying against the cruel treatment of chickens that happens in a ritual ahead of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur

The tradition dates back at least 800 years and calls for believers to wave a live chicken three times over their heads ahead of the arrival of Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, before slaughtering them. Karen Davis, the president of United Poultry Concerns which advocates the humane treatment of chickens, turkeys, ducks and other domestic fowl, is against the custom. “Rituals practiced by Hasidic Jewish communities where they swing the birds over their head and then slitting their throats, often putting them in garbage cans, putting them in dumpsters,” said Davis.