RHOADES LESS TRAVELED:

It never ceases to amaze me what people do in the name of religion.

For now, let’s put aside the hundreds of thousands of human beings who have been killed in wars involving conflicting religions.

Rather, let’s focus on other living things, such as goats and chickens. Because they’re in the news these days.

This week, a bag containing a headless goat and headless chickens — along with a hoof and a bird leg — was found in the surf off 24th Street and West Ocean Front in Newport Beach.

Also found were a dead duck and a dead chicken at 28th Street.

Authorities suspect that the animals were ritually sacrificed by members of the Santería religion.

And that’s where it gets tricky.

One part of state law makes it illegal to harm animals.

Penal Code section 597(a) states:

“...every person who maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures or wounds a living animal, or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal, is guilty of an offense punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, or by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, or, alternatively, by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.”

Another part makes it OK, under certain conditions, to ritually kill animals. According to Food and Agricultural Code 19501(a):

“Cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, goats or fallow deer, or poultry shall be slaughtered by the methods prescribed in this section. No state agency shall contract for, purchase, procure or sell all or any portion of any animal, unless that animal is slaughtered in conformity with this chapter.

“This chapter applies to any person engaged in the business of slaughtering animals enumerated in this section, or any person slaughtering any of those animals when all, or any part of, that animal is subsequently sold or used for commercial purposes.

“(2) The animal shall be handled, prepared for slaughter, and slaughtered in accordance with ritual requirements of the Jewish or any other religious faith that prescribes a method of slaughter whereby the animal suffers loss of consciousness by anemia of the brain caused by the simultaneous and instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries with a sharp instrument.”

So which is it?

Most likely, 19501 trumps 957, which is why Newport Beach authorities didn’t pursue the case.

And that’s too bad, because religious exercise as protected by the 1st Amendment is not — as with all rights — absolute. Much depends on how you define the exercises and practices of religion, which, as we can see in this case compared with say, prayer, are wildly diverse.

At the least, those exercises and practices should pass the reasonable man’s test.

And I think reasonable, thoughtful people would and should agree that mutilating animals does not pass that test.

Also, the law seems arbitrary. Why is it OK to harm cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, goats, fallow deer and poultry, and not OK to harm a feral cat?

Some religions — and laws — are carryovers from certain ancient, archaic and barbaric traditions. We’ve done away with most of them, but some, somehow, have weaseled their way into our lives and set up shop there under the protection of our most esteemed right.

BRADY RHOADES is the Daily Pilot’s editor. He may be reached at [email protected] or at (714) 966-4607.