{"id":1584,"date":"2009-08-04T20:40:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T20:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice.php"},"modified":"2009-08-04T20:40:43","modified_gmt":"2009-08-04T20:40:43","slug":"santeria-priest-can-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice","title":{"rendered":"Santeria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) A Santeria priest can continue to sacrifice animals in his Texas home, a federal appeals court has ruled.
\nJose Merced of Euless was told in 2006 that he needed a permit to slaughter animals — including goats, sheep and turtles — in his house, rituals he said he had been performing for 16 years without incident.
\nMerced sued the city, saying that it had violated his right to practice his religion, Santeria.
\nEuless officials cited potential health concerns over the animal sacrifices.
\nBut the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday (July 31) that the city had inhibited Merced’s ability to practice Santeria.
\n“Merced cannot perform the ceremonies dictated by his religion. This is a burden, and it is substantial. It is real and significant, having forced Merced to choose between living in Euless and practicing his religion,” the appeals court decided.
\nThe court established that Merced’s only available ceremonial space was in his house, due to the lack of Santeria temples in the U.S. They also found that the Santeria priest discarded of the animal remains in a timely and sanitary manner.
\nEuless authorities said the city plans to file for a rehearing.
\nBy Kristen May
\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) A Santeria priest can continue to sacrifice animals in his Texas home, a federal appeals court has ruled. Jose Merced of Euless was told in 2006 that he needed a permit to slaughter animals — including goats, sheep and turtles — in his house, rituals he said he had been performing for 16 years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSanteria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Santeria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS) A Santeria priest can continue to sacrifice animals in his Texas home, a federal appeals court has ruled. Jose Merced of Euless was told in 2006 that he needed a permit to slaughter animals — including goats, sheep and turtles — in his house, rituals he said he had been performing for 16 years…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-04T20:40:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Santeria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Santeria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules","og_description":"(RNS) A Santeria priest can continue to sacrifice animals in his Texas home, a federal appeals court has ruled. Jose Merced of Euless was told in 2006 that he needed a permit to slaughter animals — including goats, sheep and turtles — in his house, rituals he said he had been performing for 16 years…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-08-04T20:40:43+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice","name":"Santeria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-04T20:40:43+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-04T20:40:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/08\/santeria-priest-can-sacrifice#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Santeria Priest Can Sacrifice Animals at Home, Court Rules"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. 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