Religious leader says ban on animal sacrifice is affront to faith

Texas town at heart of religious freedom question.

The room was set up with benches and shrines, the herbs, dried coconuts and eggshell chalk laid out on a table. With the preparations done, 10 church members sat by the pool behind the red-brick home on the cul-de-sac and drank beer.

The next day, they would sacrifice a chicken to initiate a member, using the energy in the chicken's blood to communicate with the spirits, known as orishas.

But then Euless police knocked on the door.

The officers explained to the priest, Jose Merced, that killing animals of any kind is illegal within the city limits. Merced tried unsuccessfully to explain that animal sacrifice is as essential to his religion, Santeria, as the Eucharist is to Catholicism.

Now, Merced has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city over the May incident, thrusting the African-Caribbean religion and the quiet Dallas-area suburb into the spotlight. And Merced cites a U.S. Supreme Court case supporting Santeria animal sacrifice, indicating that Euless might have to compromise.

"It appears that city officials are either deliberately defying the Supreme Court justices on this ruling, or they're simply confused," said Ernesto Pichardo, head of the Santeria religion in the United States.

Pigeon lovers set for the battle of Trafalgar

Pigeon lovers are set to take London Mayor Ken Livingstone to court to force him to let them continue feeding the birds he calls "flying rats" in the capital's Trafalgar Square.

The Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeons (STTSP) action group has been battling a campaign launched by Livingstone six years ago to rid the central London square of its pigeons, which he says are a nuisance and a health hazard.

The sale to the public of bird seed has been banned and hawks have been brought in to scare the pigeons away.

NY cracks down on illegal mystery meats

When a food safety inspector walked into a market in Queens, he noticed the store had an interesting special posted on its front window: 12 beefy armadillos. In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat at a West Indian market and 200 pounds of cow lungs for sale at another market. At a West African grocery in Manhattan, the store was selling smoked rodent meat from a refrigerated display case. An inspector quickly seized a couple pounds of it.

Authorities say the discoveries are part of a larger trend in which markets across New York are buying meat and other foods from unregulated sources and selling them to an immigrant population accustomed to more exotic fare.