As a Orthodox Jewish child I was made to participate in a traumatizing Pre-Yom Kippur ceremony involving a chicken which was then slaughtered and eaten later and it's value in money was donated for charity as part of the Jewish High Holiday ritual called Kaparot. I gained a distaste and avoidance for chicken meat stemming from that. As an adult I disbelieved a claim that such chickens were being thrown away rather than being given to the needy. I investigated and found tons of Kaparot chickens going straight to the landfill and those who sold and slaughtered the chickens pocketed all the money for the chickens that people thought they were donating to the needy.

This story is described in the following blogs at the Jewish Journal website:

http://www.jewishjournal.com/demographic_duo/item/chicken_tzedakah

http://www.jewishjournal.com/demographic_duo/item/ten_tons_of_chickens_tossed_as_food_relief_lines_grow

http://www.jewishjournal.com/demographic_duo/item/chicken_tzedakah_makes_a_racket