http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/coral-gables-saga-continues.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:42:27 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/coral-gables-saga-continues.html/comment-page-1#comment-4164 The Wild Hunt » Pagan Burials & Animal Sacrifice Arrests Sat, 16 May 2009 15:34:21 +0000 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/the-coral-gables-saga-continues.html#comment-4164 [...] Of course police have no idea if the animals were actually slaughtered cruelly, and they too will no doubt see charges dropped or reduced once the matter comes to trial. Still the spectre of a possible three years in prison for engaging in what might have been a sacred rite is certainly chilling. The problem is that until a definitive SCOTUS decision absolutely declares that animal sacrifice is a protected religious activity (the previous SCOTUS ruling only said that Florida’s law unfairly suppressed a single group instead of being a neutral application for all) we will continue to see arrests and lower-court battles over the issue. Once legality is firmly established, we can start to have a sane set of regulations and guidelines for those who want to engage in animal sacrifice, avoiding (mostly) bogus arrests prompted by adverserial neighbors, prejudicial laws from biased city councils, and cops treating adherents of Santeria like terrorists. [...] [...] Of course police have no idea if the animals were actually slaughtered cruelly, and they too will no doubt see charges dropped or reduced once the matter comes to trial. Still the spectre of a possible three years in prison for engaging in what might have been a sacred rite is certainly chilling. The problem is that until a definitive SCOTUS decision absolutely declares that animal sacrifice is a protected religious activity (the previous SCOTUS ruling only said that Florida’s law unfairly suppressed a single group instead of being a neutral application for all) we will continue to see arrests and lower-court battles over the issue. Once legality is firmly established, we can start to have a sane set of regulations and guidelines for those who want to engage in animal sacrifice, avoiding (mostly) bogus arrests prompted by adverserial neighbors, prejudicial laws from biased city councils, and cops treating adherents of Santeria like terrorists. [...]

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