Mohammed Bin Solaiman Al-Ihaidib Okaz The Eid Al-Adha this year will be a small test for a number of the illegal expatriates in the wake of the residency law campaign. Most of the random workers will carry their knives and pose as skillful butchers to slaughter our sheep to make extra money. Haj represents an occasion during which the illegal expatriates will announce their presence. Anyone can carry his knife and claim to be an experienced butcher. The victim that will suffer the most from the work of these random butchers is the animal itself which will suffer under their knives. Our Prophet (peace be upon him) has warned us against torturing the animals during sacrifice. He has asked us to sharpen the knife and to do the slaughtering very quickly so that the sheep does not feel the pain. With every Eid Al-Adha day, news circulates about the hospitals' emergency wards receiving tens of injuries resulting from the knives and the daggers used during the slaughtering of the animals. The injuries usually range between mild to serious. The injuries happen when people insist on slaughtering at their homes instead of the slaughterhouses. In their excitement, the family members, including the father and his children, may injure themselves. It also happens when people use the services of the unauthorized expatriate posing as a butcher while in fact he is not. A large number of injuries also happen when people insist on walking through the numerous passages of the slaughterhouses where tens of butchers work. In the frenzy of activities, knives may fly from the hands of the butchers injuring or sometimes killing the bystanders. The municipalities should take all the necessary precautionary measures at the slaughterhouses to preserve the safety of the butchers and the people who take their animals to be slaughtered there. Some people had actually lost their lives or were seriously injured when they were kicked by the livestock. Our problem is that we do not learn anything from painful past lessons.
