Should animal sacrifice for religious purposes be legal or illegal?

We kill animals for lots of other reasons...as long as they're bought and paid for by the practitioners, and as long as the animals are killed humanely, I can't think of a good reason to stop them from following their rituals, no matter how nonsensical I personally find them...

It probably should be illegal, as ritually killing an animal would be considered animal cruelty. This isn't hunting, which is licensed, and the animals used would definitely require licensing to kill.

A religious accomodation doesn't automatically sanction any belief. A ras tafari will get arrested for marijuana possession same as anyone else. The fundamentalist mormons whose complex was recently raided also. This is neccessary in a civil secular society, so that people can maintain a measure of peace, or soon people would claim religious exemptions for any lawbreaking.

I think, sacrifice humans, as religious ritual is much worse.

Bible was not at all consistent in its view of this religious practice. Psalm 106 condemned the Israelites who had "sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons" and had "poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan" (vs:36-37), and kings like Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3) and Manasseh (2 Kings 21:6) were denounced for having made their sons "pass through fire," an expression that denoted the sacrifice of children as burnt offerings.

Source : http://faithcommons.org/animal_and_human_sacrifice...

-atheist-

I think as recent as 4 years ago, voodoo has been recognized as a religion. I know priests and priestess that practice their santeria using live animals during their ceremonies. If a way of life, belief, is recognized as a religion, then i guess they are licensed, or granted permission to carry out their ceremonies without the government stepping in to take control.

Animals are sacrificed every day-I ate one for lunch. It wasn't for my religion, though.

Acts 10:10-15/KJV

And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

PETA says that's murder, which is one of many reasons why they have an unnatural hatred for God, and his word.

1 Timothy 4:3 (King James Version)

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

http://takeastandagainstliberals.blogspot.com/2006...

What do they do with the anmal after they kill it? They eat it, right? So...how is that different than any other abattoir?

Think about it, hunting is legal...and, butchering animals kosher is legal. [And not particularly "humane." Read the controversy in Germany regarding the issue:

http://inscribe.iupress.org/doi/abs/10.2979/JSS.20... ]

Interestingly, kosher law forbids eating animals that are hunted.

I guess if people are going to eat meat, and sometimes "say grace" over it...well...not a great big difference. I think Santeria is probably more humane than snare traps.

They should have passed the law against unlicensed slaughter, then held the religious groups to the law.

It shouldn't be legal or illegal just because it's for religious purposes, in other words.

Animal sacrifices occur everyday for a myriad of observances. Birthday dinners, BBQs for various functions, dinners in honor of a person etc.

Though it may not be repulsive to sacrifice an animal to host a dinner for our government leaders for example ...

In reference to the Bible, an animal sacrificed to God becomes utterly repulsive to many even though the animal is provided to feed His people.

Deu 12:6 "And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the first-born of your herd and of your flock.

Deu 12:7 "There also you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

I don't think it is the animal people are having a problem with, the problem is sacrificing it in the honor of God.

I think animal sacrifice is totally barbarous and probably serves no good purpose anyway.

I mean, if God is supposed to love the people and animals he/she created, how can it be pleasurable to God to see some of those creations being destroyed in his/her name?

I suppose that this type of activity is mostly centered around satanism, but I have heard that the Zionists want to rebuild the Temple of Solomon and to sacrifice a red heifer...

Often sacrificial animals are eaten afterward, so the difference from the meat industry is virtually non-existent.

The government should not have the right to regulate what we can grow or harvest, plant or (non-human) animal.