California Man Ordered to Pay for Animal Sacrifices

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California man who injured three Hmong men
in a fight must pay their medical bills including more than $6,000 for
animals and herbal medicines used in traditional healing ceremonies,
a court has ruled.

Chad Wilson Keichler pleaded no contest to civil rights violations for
uttering racial slurs against the Asian men during the brawl in Butte,
California, and was ordered by a trial court to reimburse them for their
medical expenses.

In addition to submitting hospital and doctor bills, the men turned in
receipts for herbal medicines and cows, pigs and chickens slaughtered in
Hmong "spirit-calling ceremonies."

Keichler opposed making restitution for the nonmedical expenses, but a
California appeals court on Wednesday ruled that he should pay because
the ceremony is the equivalent of Western psychotherapy.

In a letter to the court, victim Xiong Xeng Moua explained: "In my
culture, one way of helping a person who has been traumatized … is to
hold a traditional spirit calling to call my spirit back to me."

An expert testified that the Hmong people believe that a person who is
attacked may lose one of his many souls and become ill.

The expert said the souls of animals killed during the spirit-calling ceremony
are called on to replace the victim’s lost soul. The animals are then eaten
by attendees as part of the ceremony.

There are those who claim the Dowbrigade lost his soul long ago,
but this Hmong animal sacrifice soul-replacement ceremony sounds like
just
the trick to get it back. And it all ends in a Barbeque!

from
Reuters

painting by Goya