If people read things carefully...

A short section describing cult-related crime in Eric W. Hickey's book Serial Murderers and Their Victims briefly discusses the Church of Satan and Anton LaVey. In it, the author says that once members of the CoS reach a certain position in the Church they are "invited to participate in human and animal sacrifices (p.48)." He references a chapter in LaVey's Satanic Bible titled 'On the choice of a human sacrifice' as the evidence and guidelines for these sacrificial rituals.

An uniformed reader might take Hickey at his work and assume that LaVey not only condones but encourages blood sacrifices. As someone who is fairly well acquainted with the text my reaction was: how could someone be so far off the mark? The chapter in question is only four pages long so it's not like you could get lost in all the details and mistake what LaVey is saying. Initially he mocks "white" magicians for being unable to muster the vital life energies required for particular rituals without resorting to taking another's life. Then LaVey states:

"Under no circumstance would a Satanist sacrifice any animal or baby!...There are sound and logical reasons why the Satanist could not perform such sacrifices. Man, the animal, is the godhead to the Satanist. The purest form of carnal existence reposes in the bodies of animals and human children who have not grown old enough to deny themselves their natural desires. They can perceive things that the average adult human can never hope to. therefore, the satanist holds these being in a sacred regard, knowing he can learn much from these natural magicians of the world."

The rest of the chapter describes how even when it is deemed necessary to sacrifice someone, this is a symbolic and not a literal act. A curse is placed upon the chosen individual in the hope that negative consequences will befall them. The person chosen is not someone 'pure of heart' or any of those cliches, it is someone who has wronged you and deserves to be cursed as a consequence of their own actions.

Of course, this kind of understanding is certainly not representative of every Satanic philosophy but if you're going to be talking about LaVey this kind of distinction should be made.