Santeria Part II. Had to.

Warning: Graphic pics. Don't look if you don't have the stomach for headless little animals. I don't have the stomach for them either, but how else will anyone know about it if I do nothing?

I didn't want this to be the Santeria hotspot, but the beheading hasn't stopped, and where else am I going to talk about it? The chicken couldn't have done much to deserve this, and the goat couldn't have been more than a week old. Some of the people practice their religion by crushing chalk, but not our knife wielding neighbors.

This is an older website about the LA River, as well as a homemade video of the LA River, both posted a year ago or so by one Jay Babcock. As it happens, I am not the only one interested in what the hell could be going on here.

Jay Babcock

Don't let it get you down, something can always be done. You can help, if you feel inspired to.

And, it just so happens that there is a proactive group called "Friends of the LA River", and we have plenty of good reasons to speak to them or to join their group. The poor headless babies are only one of the reasons, if you can believe that. If you only knew what kind of mayhem goes down regularly at the beautiful, magical and sometimes serene LA River.

Dear Friends of the LA River,

My husband and I live close to the river and we go there often - and lately we've been seeing headless chickens, roosters and yesterday a headless baby goat. I don't know how long its been happening, but according to some of my neighbors, this has been going on for a long time there. There are always red ribbons tied around the neighboring trees, and its very disturbing. I guess my question is, has this come to your attention before, and if it has, is there anything any of us can do about it?

I'm aware that "religious rights" can, at times prohibit law enforcement from doing much about it, but then that's only what I've heard or read. I don't know who is actually beheading these animals, but I would imagine it could be anyone. My best guess is that it's a Santeria practice. Please let me know if you have any other information on this; we've taken photos each time we see this in the hopes that it may shed light on the problem and assist in stopping it somehow.

Thanks,
Ohell

Hi Ohell,

Wow. This is the first time I've heard anything about this. Besides

the truly disgusting beheading factor, no matter your religious beliefs,

you still can't litter. I'd say leaving a beheaded animal in the River

counts as leaving potential biohazard waste. I would start by notifying your

councilmember. Do you know which district you're in? The website to find your councilmember is:

http://lacity.org/lacity/YourGovernment/CityCouncil/index.htm

And if you're having trouble let me know. I can help you figure that

out. Also, I can call the councilmember, too. If it's along the River, I

probably know them. Thanks for reporting this. I'm sorry that you have to see this all

the time...

CR

Hi CR,

I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly....I don't know why, I just assumed it might have been widespread common knowledge once I saw the animals. I only heard about it a few months ago, but didn't put a lot of stock in it, because the source was living in a hospital, of sorts....anyway I don't doubt them now! I looked up our councilmember and it's Eric Garcetti. If we're close to the river, but not actually living along (or at) the river, so would he still be our representative? If so, I'll try to get in touch with him.

It's such a tricky situation, but you're right - at the very least it's littering. I would love to know if any of these animals are protected by the law, I'm just not sure they are, which would be really unfortunate.

Thanks again,
Ohell

Hi Ohell,

Yes, I'd say the place to start is Garcetti's office. Try the district
office:

3750 Verdugo Road
Los Angeles, CA 90065
(323)478-9002

They should be able to at least tell you what you can do. The other option,
I guess, is to call the police. Just tell them there's blood everywhere and
they'll show up...

It's very sad that the animals don't have protections in the case of
religious rituals. And it's disgusting that someone is just leaving the
remains around. I will also contact Garcetti and see what they can do about
it - or if they can't do anything...

Thanks for letting us know.

CR

I called Garcetti's office with a message. He was just re-elected and appears to be doing a fine job. I will likely hear from his Sec'y in the near future - if I don't, then I will need to assemble a night-goggle-infrared team without his input.

I Don't Practice Reddish Ribbons

So I owe a big apology to my neighbor (not the one I'm presently trying to practice nothingness with) - I wrote somewhere on my other blog something about this particular guy living in a mental facility of sorts; that much is true. Also, that he claimed to constantly have to clear the nearby LA river of animals and - ok here it is:

"We have a neighbor down the block with a remarkably similar belly to Santa who never makes much sense, but does tell us very engaging river stories, at least. He told us that the reason we often see peanuts and fruit scattered down at the river (we never have) is because the Santeria like to sacrifice animals there, so there's the clear proof. Also, the murdered goats he always has to remove from the area has solidified it for him. I suspect it stems from the years of military training he endured when he wasn't playing darts at our state funded neighborhood Assisted Living house for local oddities."

So number one: that wasn't nice of me to say about him. I don't know how to stop doing it, but I recognize that making light of him would not be recognized as badge-on-sash worthy by the Girl Scouts. Second, my husband came home yesterday morning from a run to let me know there were dead animals (roosters and another pretty bird with blue feathers) lying dead, with no head, about 2 yards from each other. Naturally I like to see things to verify and do a sort of inner fact checking, because you know sometimes you have things happen in your life that are unbelievable to others, but you know them to be true, because you were the one collecting the memory.

So I went with him to investigate. No, they had no heads, and there were red ribbons tied around the neighboring tree branches. Proof. And one big plastic orange ribbon. I think they might have run out of red toward the end. It was really disturbing! My husband wasn't entirely convinced it was the Santeria but more so thought it was a sociopathic kid or two.

Anyway, a little note to my neighbor who doesn't read, by the way, only jokes and watches movies that I wouldn't - hey. I apologize. You are a dear man, and do you know what? The little gourds down by the water, the ribbons, the roosters with no heads - it all adds up to you're not crazy. Not in regards to the Santeria, anyhow.

His own dog just died two weeks ago, but she was ready, and I'd suggest that she desperately helped it along. If there were a plug she would've pulled her own. He walked her and talked to her as if she were human and I think she was just tired of the homemade joke monologues. Moreover, when she saw our dogs come running up to play with her, she'd immediately lay down for a nap.

My next door neigbor, who is a nice therapist, and one of the few people on the block aside from her husband who have been doing a wonderful job at keeping their pets alive - told me today that she was walking down at the river in June and saw a patch of fur belonging to an animal who was laying in the grass, not moving - and wasn't sure what it was until she saw what she describes as a cloven -

"Hoof? Oh come on, no!"

"Yeah, a cloven hoof! Terrible, right?"

It was a goat. And back to my other neighbor, now I'm really sorry. And sad. And it makes me want to start a 'don't do that' club! But the thing about the Santeria is that they are protected under their religious rights roster, and there isn't really anything the authorities can do - and I don't think I'm so hot on electing myself "hall monitor" for the LA River or anything.

Infrared camera operator? -------> no, although it appears they do operate at night.

hide & seek & catch = and end up like the rooster?

lasso handler = would take years of practice

cop = I must be joking

What gets me down the most is the one way trip the roosters and/or the goats of the past must have had going to the river, thinking they were getting some air, maybe. These animals are not typically found grazing on fish, bread & plastic like the other birds and homeless folk down by the water. Which means they'd have to be driven by car, or worse yet - walked. And I know there's a man in Burbank, who is a priest or a high priest and he is in his 60's and is a well respected, sought after Santerian who very much believes in what he's doing, which of course includes sacrificing.

Dark post!

And so do his clients. And if you don't believe me, then read about him for yourself:

http://www.rootsandrooted.org/?p=807

If the link doesn't work, just take my word for it. Aside from that, if you still don't believe me, here are some pictures I took:

Where does one go from here? I'm already not eating chicken or beef anymore. I never ate a rooster. Warning - the contents of this post could be damaging to a delicate constitution. But I hope not.