Pricey cattle: Expensive animals to be slaughtered by expensive butchers

Post-Eid cleanup preparations ready, says DCO.

RAWALPINDI: All is set to celebrate Eidul Azha on Monday in Rawalpindi, where people remained busy buying sacrificial animals.

The district government, on the other hand, said it has prepared arrangements to cope with post-sacrificial problems in the city. Arrangements have been made to remove offel and the remains of animals from congested areas, said District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zaffar.

After buying animals, people are finding it hard to hire professional butchers at affordable rates as a good number of non-professionals are out to mint money.

“I contacted a butcher in Gulzar-i-Qaid to have my bull sacrificed, but he asked for Rs10,000. I bought the bull for Rs80,000 with four others and we find it hard to pay such high charges to butchers,” said Asghar Chaudhry lamented.

He said that he had contacted many professional butchers, none of them was ready to do the job for less than Rs7,000.

When it comes to slaughtering goats and lambs, butchers ask for Rs2,500 to Rs4,000.

Shakeeb Ahmed, a resident of Lal Kurti, said he agreed to pay Rs3,000 as he and his two children would help the butcher slaughter a big lamb.

“First it is difficult to find an affordable sacrificial animal, and then search for a butcher with reasonable charges. Bookings for butchers start as early as one month before the Eid,” Ahmed said.

A visit to different cattle markets revealed that potential buyers hoped for a drop in the demands of sellers, as cows and bulls ranged from Rs30,000 to Rs150,000.

Goats and lamb range from Rs15, 000 to Rs40,000 in the cantonment areas and surrounding localities.

Talking to The Express Tribune DCO Saqib Zaffar said enough measures had been taken to ensure cleanliness after the Eid. Municipal staff and other civic agencies will remain alert with waste transfer vehicles and remains will be taken to distant areas for disposal, he added.

The DCO said that residents near and around Benazir Bhutto International Airport had been urged not to throw animal waste near the airport as scavenging birds could disrupt air traffic.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th,  2011.