This week a warehouse space in Hialeah (a city within the greater Miami area) was ravaged in an electrical wiring-sparked blaze. There were no fire alarms and the owner kept no insurance. Over fifty souls perished. It was a tragedy all around. It made news in Miami but quickly fizzled, along with the memories of those overcome by the smoke and chemical fumes. Only five, locked in a sealed office space further from the source, survived.
Now you’re wondering how it was you missed such a newsworthy item. And I have a ready answer: because they were mostly birds. Only a couple of puppies (two Shih-tzus) lost their lives. And the five that survived? Pups, all, they came out of the blaze tails-a-wagging.
A lot of chickens were among the asphyxiated, prompting some of us to recognize this location as one of the many outlets serving the largest Santería community in the US. So you know, this religious group has been granted (by Federal law) the right to preserve their practice of animal sacrifices in the city of Hialeah, in spite of prevailing zoning restrictions.
This has been an angst-ridden issue within the local populace. Although this two hundred year old Afro-Cuban tradition is alive and well in Miami, it is practiced quietly—in spite of the sacrifices. Though the animals are reportedly slaughtered humanely (one slice to the vessels in the neck), there is no government oversight of the practice (as there is with Kosher methods, for example). In case you’re wondering, the animals are later eaten, which seems to invite government intervention. And yet the Supreme Court has upheld their religious rights, nonetheless.
The problem with this practice, as I see it, is not the unregulated slaughter, necessarily, but the confinement and treatment of the ill-fated animals before the practice is carried out—and the animal trade that invariably exists to serve this relatively unique but locally widespread religion. This warehouse fire case seems exemplary of such conditions—not exactly pristine, as I’m given to understand.
As with all pet shops in industrial Hialeah (quite a few, for sure), these places are filthy and just barely adequate for housing animals. They go largely unregulated. They sell not just the chickens and the goats most typically sacrificed, but puppies, parrots and pocket pets, too. It’s an equal-opportunity animal welfare nightmare.
The tragedy here is not so much the fire and the preventable loss of animal life, but the many thousands of lives which are sacrificed annually not just to the tradition of the knife, but to the real crime: the barbarity of the trade it spawns.
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If they are eating them afterwards why do I see bags of dead chickens on the railroad tracks I have to cross, at least once a week if not more? I was told that the railroad crossing is significant of something, but I imagine the chickens don't see it that way.
There is something about doves/pigeons also, people bring in doves that can't fly because they have almost no weight, but if they are fed and watered, most of them may recover. I'm pretty sure they are not anorexic and disease doesn't seem to be the problem so that leaves someone that is not feeding the ones that they are letting go.
Granted I am not familiar with this culture, but see the results frequently. I have always wondered where these creatures originated from.
Carla October 6th, 2007 08:17:00 AM
Carla: I've heard something about this, too. And I don't necessarily believe they eat all the chickens they kill. After all, most people aren't going to go in for plucking a bird when they can get a roasted one at Costco for $4.99. I think that's what thier press puts out for public appeasement. Perhaps they eat the goats. I sure hope they don't let those go to waste.
Dr. Patty Khuly October 6th, 2007 08:27:00 AM
Gosh, I must have missed the bit in the Constitution which protects the right to be cruel to animals.
/snark
I've seen animal bits (ugh, those chicken heads!) when visiting Florida, and I am going to be totally un-PC and say that I don't think it should be allowed. Killing an animal is not the point of kosher slaughter, eating an animal prepared in a certain manner is - and as you say, the entire procedure is supervised. I just don't get whyit is acceptable to keep animals in these warehouses and dispose of them in highly unsanitary ways, religion or no.
Cindy October 6th, 2007 09:02:00 AM
This brings up a larger question: What's to be done about this? More publicity? Petitions? Lobbying? Activism? Which profession is most effective in improving animal welfare standards? I am a 3rd-attempt vet school applicant who is also considering a career in animal rights law or writing if vet school is not meant to be. Cases like this make my blood boil and instead of shaking my head and moving on to peruse happier subjects on the web, I'd like to know what I can do with this information.
Megan Donnelly October 6th, 2007 10:07:00 AM
Megan: I believe the only reasonable approach to this is through regulation of the animal trade.
Locally, this is a *huge* issue for us because we have so many immigrants from countries whose animal standards are so very different from ours. Dogs are backyard animals for most recent Hispanic immigrants. Cats were a protein source for some (they seldom stay indoors). I wake up every morning to roosters crowing (in the suburbs). And puppy stores are *everywhere.* I'm Hispanic, too, but even half a generation away from the homeland seems to make a difference in our cultural outlook on the subject of animals.
Miami's endless influx means it's going to be a long time before the same standards that rule the rest of the US applies to us. State and Federal legislation is great but if lax local law enforcement neuters their effects by looking the other way, they're all but useless.
Dr. Patty Khuly October 6th, 2007 10:51:00 AM
Mmmm...try having your suburban neighbour's "cultural right" to slaughter a cow in his backyard upheld by the constitutional court. OK, it does then get cut up and most of it is eaten - the unusable bits often just dumped in a corner for a week or two or in the municipal bins - but here it's not the consumption, or even the sacrifice that really upsets everyone, but the fact that it's 'unacceptable to the ancestors' for it to be done quickly and cleanly. After being tied up for a few days, the traditional method is for a few hundred people to scream and dance around the animal for an hour or two before it is stabbed to death by some brave young warriors. The SPCA has taken cases to court repeatedly, only for it to be thrown out as being cultural discrimination.
And it's everyones right to keep 30 or 40 chickens in a 3 foot wire crate, as well. Mostly, there are chickens 3 or 4 layers deep, with the bottom ones slowly being suffocated while the top layers have no access at all to either food or water - if it is even provided....
We have a lot of Halaal (Muslim) and Kosher slaughter as well. While that isn't supervised by any government agency here, it has to happen in front of a religious authority, and - mostly, the transport and keeping of the animals is no better or worse than any other commercial process - the requirements for the animal to be healthy and to be bled out rapidly ensure that the death is quick. Comparatively - and as a meat eater myself, I am just as complicit.
jcat October 6th, 2007 02:56:00 PM
I'm speechless.
Thank you for bring this heinousness to light, and for all you do.
Pam Holt October 6th, 2007 08:23:00 PM
I wasn't sure how to respond to my Peruvian neighbor complaining about the group sacrificing a goat in the empty pool of a house for sale until I found a goat skeleton in a broken bag at a corner of a street I walk my dogs on. Then I remembered the chicken parts deposited at the corners of another intersection. And another...and another...
Given that the slaughter of animals in the US is often less than humane (even in Kosher slaughterhouses), I find it hard to criticise the Santerias for their slaughtering pratices. Maybe regulating how they dispose of the carcasses would be a better way to deal with this. I can't legally dump my dead animals along the roadway (yeah, I know, who's going to catch me?). But, if the Santerias are so interested in working within the law, maybe their priests can be convinced to tell the people not to dump their sacrifices at intersections or on railroad tracks. No religion in the US can practice without certain limits determined by the effect on non-members; the Santerias should be amenable to this idea, if they are interested in being considered a legitimate religious enterprise.
As for the before-slaughter treatment, this is a problem with all animal oriented business in the US. Even buying Kosher or organic doesn't guarantee that the animals were treated humanely before slaughter. I'm much less interested in buying "organic" meat or animals products than I am in how the animals are treated.
When some one comes up with a "humanely treated" animal product line, then I might pay attention, and more money." Free range" chickens in a big barn somewhere in the desert? Try again.
hmac October 6th, 2007 10:23:00 PM
I don't know about Santeria, but in Vodou, the crossroads represent a place where the spirit (or divine) world and the real world intersect. You get a more direct line to the spirits there. In Haiti, which is a very poor country, sacrifices are eaten, if not by the practitioner then by the local poor. During the big festivals where many animals are sacrificed at the major cemeteries, the poor line up for their chickens. In Miami it sounds like the religion has not caught up with the cultural changes (no poor people waiting for their chickens.) Vodou has more middle class white adherents than Santeria, I believe, and it's become acceptable in some circles to not make blood sacrifices at all. There are also traditionalists that argue about that.
Cutting the throat or cutting off the head is a perfectly acceptable way to slaughter a chicken. It's quick and painless. I've used a machete to whack the head off a chicken, my grandmother used a hatchet. Maybe it's not sanitary by some people's standards but we do cook the chicken before eating it.
Nightmare October 6th, 2007 11:07:00 PM
Yeah, sort of in the same vein as Nightmare said, I've asked some friends (not practitioners of Santeria, but they have family which are) about the whole leaving dead chickens at intersections and railroad tracks deal. This isn't simply an issue of disposing of the carcasses, the folks doing this believe that placing the carcass at crossroads helps gain a clearer connection with the spiritworld or whatever they are trying to communicate with.
Honestly I think it's a bit strange, but they should be free to practice their religion without harassment from animal rights advocates. Most of the people carping about this don't give it a second thought when they go pick up a bird a Publix. Just because it's wrapped in cellophane doesn't negate the fact that blood once coursed through it's veins.
Chip October 9th, 2007 10:47:00 AM
Their right to practice their religion is constitutionally protected.
They can, however, be required to abide by religiously neutral animal welfare laws. That would include such things as requiring the conditions in which they are raised and kept, pre-sacrifice, to meet the same minimum standards as commercial, Kosher, or Halal operations.
The catch may be that the actual standards required by government regulations are really not very high, and the Kosher and Halal operations are already exceeding them by their own choice/religious requirements. Practitioners of Santeria can't be held to a higher standard than we collectively require of commercial operations, just because we think animal sacrifice for religious (rather than food) reasons is nasty.
Lis October 9th, 2007 01:30:00 PM
Just a few responses to hopefully clear some of the air:
1- Practitioners of Santeria do not sacrifice cats, dogs, or infants.
2- The religious practice of animal sacrifice in Santeria is far more humane than the methods used in U.S. slaughterhouses. We don't abuse them, or do such cruel things as seen on TV such as searing off the beaks of chickens, or pushing a cow over on its side and running it over with a tractor (or a forklift, I believe). When the sacrifice is performed in a religious rite, it is done very quickly.
3- I, personally, am sorry and ashamed if that warehouse owner kept his animals in such poor conditions. That is his personal negligence, and not to be taken as a stereotype for all practitioners of the religion.
4- The animals sacrificed are not always eaten.
5- There is nothing wrong with animal sacrifice. Either we sacrifice the chicken, or the next guy will kill it for dinner. But either way, that animal is going to die.
6- The God of Christians used to demand such sacrifices as rams, goats, bulls and even humans on occasion (i.e. Jeptha). The Gods of the Yoruba are mainly satisfied with fowl.
7- When you have found animal remains left at the train tracks or street corner, it was because the santero/a was instructed to do so. After a sacrifice has been conducted, the practitioner communicates with the divinty(ies) and asks the God(s) what s/he wants to be done with the carcasses. Based on one of many different possible responses, the animals may be eaten, or disposed of in the garbage, forest, river, train tracks, crossroads, etc.
Whenever you're curious of anything pertaining to Santeria, please do some internet research or go pick up a book on the topic. Please don't point fingers and call practitioners "devil worshippers" because you'd be very mistaken. I once thought the same thing until I grew brave enough to buy a book and learn a little bit. For a first timer, I'd highly recommend "Cuban Santeria: Walking with the Night" by Raul Canizares.
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