MINA, 12 January 2006 — Pilgrims slaughtered over one million sheep, cows and camels in Mina to mark the successful completion of the Haj. An additional 42,000 beasts were slaughtered in Makkah abattoirs as of Wednesday, official sources said.
The Kingdom launched a program for the optimal utilization of the sacrificial meat in 1983. Under the Project for the Utilization of Sacrificial Animals During Haj, managed by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), pilgrims can purchase coupons and delegate the bank to sacrifice an animal on their behalf. The project is designed to make use of the meat by distributing it to the poor and needy in the Kingdom and abroad.
Most pilgrims who choose not to perform the sacrifice personally purchase the coupons, which cost around SR450 this year. Subsequently, they never experience the hassle of slaughtering and distributing millions of animals on their behalf.
This year the IDB sold 700,000 sacrificial coupons. It purchased 650,000 sheep, and a large number of camels and cows. Slaughtering this many animals over three days is an awesome task that requires highly sophisticated facilities and substantial resources. In 2001, Saudi Arabia built the world’s biggest slaughterhouse in Mina at a cost SR470 million ($125 million). This correspondent toured the huge complex on Wednesday and witnessed the arrival of animals in large numbers, their slaughtering and processing of the carcasses.
This state-of-the-art facility sprawling over a 500,000 square-meter area can slaughter 200,000 sheep a day utilizing some 10,000 workers. They work in two 12-hours shifts.
Ameen Idrees, a mechanical supervisor who has been working at the abattoir for the last four years, said there was a wrong perception among people who have not visited the slaughterhouse that “the slaughtering is done by machines. As a matter of fact it is done manually by the employees conforming to all Islamic requirements.”
The animals are brought one by one to the floor of the slaughterhouse from an adjacent facility. The floor is a lattice of steel that allows the blood to drain through. After the animal is slaughtered there by knife, the carcass is hooked to a conveyer that takes it to the upper floor where they are skinned, disemboweled and vitals removed and thrown into designated baskets linked to another chain. Refuse is sent directly to dumping trucks parked outside, said Jamal Moussa, a Sudanese worker at the slaughterhouse.
After cleaning, sheep carcasses are cut up into quarters while camels and cows are cut up into suitable parts and then distributed through the distribution channels in Mina and Makkah, Idrees said.
“An amount of sacrificial meat is sent to a charity in Makkah, where it is cooked for feeding pilgrims. Meat is delivered to various charity organizations in Makkah and Madinah as well as other Saudi cities for distribution among the poor and the needy. Excess sacrificial meat is transported, either by land, sea or air to Muslim countries for distribution among the poor,” Idrees said.
Outside the slaughterhouse the scene was entirely different. Some came to offer the sacrifice personally. Others came from nearby cities of Makkah, Jeddah and Taif to collect sacrificial meat.
There were still others who came to buy cheap meat from a large number of Africans who were selling carcasses they received as “sadaqa” from the pilgrims.
