It’s not safe for a goat in Texas:
Jose Merced seems like an average Texan: He has a good job with an airline, a house in a suburban cul-de-sac, three chihuahuas and strong religious faith.
It is what transpired in a bedroom attached to his garage, however, that piqued his neighbours’ interest about five years ago. Police in Euless, a suburb of Fort Worth, received two anonymous calls warning that Mr. Merced, 46, was preparing to slit a goat’s throat.
When officers arrived at his door in 2004, they learned that for the past 16 years, Mr. Merced had been sacrificing more than goats — ducks, chickens, doves and turtles had all been brought to his door, and killed at the same time in ceremonies for a little-known religion.
Jose Merced astutely acknowledges that Goat sacrifice is never going to be popular in Texas; nevertheless, he is insisting that he has a right to practice his religion in spite of what the neighbours think. Curiously, the law is agreeing with him – which goes to show that the law, once freed of its tether to Judeo-Christian morality, has become just as deranged as Mr. Merced and his exsufflicate god.
In addition to the occasional goat and chicken, during 2005, with the law’s permission, the good people of Texas also sacrificed 77,374 babies to the god of convenience in abortion clinics – which goes to show that the law is not just daft, but scelestious.
Anglican Samizdat 