Prices of finery for sacrificial animals go up

RAWALPINDI:

As sacrificial animals are already being sold for all-time high rates, prices of traditional decorative items for the livestock have gone up in local markets and on stalls set up in Rawalpindi city and Cantonment areas.

With Eidul Azha just around the corner, tending and petting sacrificial animals has become a source of amusement for children who could be seen taking their animals for grazing on green belts, roads and streets of the city.

The devotion of their days and nights to their cattle has further cemented the bond between the animals and children.

The children seem to be happy to decorate sacrificial animals with garlands, ornaments and other decorative items they have bought from their own pocket money.

The joy of children becomes double when the sacrificial animals come home. The children happily bathed the animals. They take the animals for a walk and a parade in the streets with gusto.

Feeding and watering animals also become a favourite pastime of children.

Student Kameel Hassan said that he forced his parents to buy white colour oxen for Eidul Azha. He said that he has decorated his oxen from his own pocket money. He said that he also gets fodder and takes care of it all day long.

Student Tasbeeh Fatima said that she was very happy when the animal was brought home. She said that she washes her goat to save it from the extreme heat. She said that she has ordered items to decorate her goat.

Vendors have also taken advantage of this to make decorative items more expensive.

Curls tied around the feet of animals are being sold at Rs250, sehra at Rs2,000, necklaces at Rs300 to 450 and saddles wrapped around the animal’s waiste at Rs500. However, children are happy to buy these things at their own expense to decorate the animals.

Mukhtar Malik, a shopkeeper at the Bhata Chowk cattle market, who sells sacrificial animal decoration items, said that the decoration items were very expensive this year. “I had bought half of the decorative items last year and they were left unsold. I am now selling them at new rates. Most buyers of this product are children. Elders buy animals and if they are accompanied by children they must buy these items,” he said.

Theft of sacrificial animals has also increased in the city. In the last two days, 12 bulls, 16 goats and two cows were stolen in 16 incidents within the limits of different police stations in Rawalpindi. Their cases have also been registered at the police stations.

Meanwhile, butchers have also increased the rates for slaughtering sacrificial animals many folds as compared to the previous year.

Those who buy sacrificial animals face difficulty in getting the services of experienced butchers, who have already been engaged by citizens for the three days of Eid.

Butchers are demanding up to Rs25,000 for slaughtering a bull and a cow in the morning on the first day of Eidul Azha and up to Rs20,000 in the evening on the first day. The butchers are demanding Rs18,00 on the second day and Rs15,000 on the third day of Eidul Azha.

Similarly, the butchers have fixed the rate of Rs3,800 for slaughtering a goat on the first day, Rs3,000 on the second day and Rs2800 on the third day of Eidul Azha.

In addition, a large number of butchers along with whole teams from distant villages have started pouring into the garrison city to place reservations.

Butchers Union Vice-President Faisal Qureshi said that they get the chance to mass slaughter cattle once a year. “This is our season. No one buys meat from a shop until at least a month after the Eidul-Azha. The butchers' business remains closed for two to three weeks. That is why the rates have been increased,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2022.