re: Animal cruelty and Haitians
I recently stumbled on the thread concerning a group of Haitian youths holding a cat by the tail and swinging it over their heads. There seemed to be a lot of public outcry concerning the matter; and how the school administrators were apparently apathetic to what was going on at the time of the incident.
I submit to you that the couple who witnessed this certainly didn't take into consideration that these youths were perhaps doing this as some spiritual ritual. Keep in mind that you are dealing with Haitians, and the schools representative did say that this was part of their culture. To speak simply Haitians practice Voodoo;which is an offshoot of religious practices in Benin Republic,West Africa. These practices while perhaps not as mainstream as Judeo-Christian traditions, certainly must be respected as a religion. Particularly by an individual who has chosen to live in the Caribbean. This kind of thing is seen in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and in good old DR. The specific animal used in this ritual happened to be a cat (which is not seen very often by the way), as animals used in these types of spiritual cleanings are usually chickens, roosters; is actually quite common in Haitian culture.
I have no intention of getting involved in a protracted debate concerning animal rights versus religious practices. Simply stating that if this was a matter of spiritual practice or religious ceremony then the youths in question are actually not at fault of being callous. If you live in a country which is not your place of birth and he see something like this perhaps you would be wiser to know the culture of the people that you're dealing with a daily basis before you accuse them of ignorance, callousness and criminality.
I recently stumbled on the thread concerning a group of Haitian youths holding a cat by the tail and swinging it over their heads. There seemed to be a lot of public outcry concerning the matter; and how the school administrators were apparently apathetic to what was going on at the time of the incident.
I submit to you that the couple who witnessed this certainly didn't take into consideration that these youths were perhaps doing this as some spiritual ritual. Keep in mind that you are dealing with Haitians, and the schools representative did say that this was part of their culture. To speak simply Haitians practice Voodoo;which is an offshoot of religious practices in Benin Republic,West Africa. These practices while perhaps not as mainstream as Judeo-Christian traditions, certainly must be respected as a religion. Particularly by an individual who has chosen to live in the Caribbean. This kind of thing is seen in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and in good old DR. The specific animal used in this ritual happened to be a cat (which is not seen very often by the way), as animals used in these types of spiritual cleanings are usually chickens, roosters; is actually quite common in Haitian culture.
I have no intention of getting involved in a protracted debate concerning animal rights versus religious practices. Simply stating that if this was a matter of spiritual practice or religious ceremony then the youths in question are actually not at fault of being callous. If you live in a country which is not your place of birth and he see something like this perhaps you would be wiser to know the culture of the people that you're dealing with a daily basis before you accuse them of ignorance, callousness and criminality.
