GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A spooked cow killed a Palestinian man who was trying to slaughter it on Saturday during the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha, a Gaza health official said.
Muslims around the world slaughter sheep, cows and goats, during the four-day holiday that began Friday, giving away much of the meat to the poor. The Muslim holiday commemorates the sacrifice by the prophet Ibrahim, known to Christians and Jews as Abraham.But accidents are common as people frequently buy animals to slaughter themselves instead of paying professional butchers. The festive atmosphere at the site of the slaughtering also tends to make the animals fidgety.The 52-year-old man who died was trampled, and three people were seriously injured when the cow ran wild in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, said health official Ashraf al-Kidra.In all, he said some 150 people were hospitalized in the Palestinian territory with knife wounds or other injuries caused by animals trying to break away.Two similar incidents occurred in Pakistan on Saturday.In Gaza, where over a third of the territory's 1.6 million residents live in poverty and nearly 80 percent rely on food aid, few people eat fresh meat regularly, making the holiday a special treat.Public slaughtering is common in Gaza, where professional butcher shops are pricey."It's neither healthy nor good. But it's a tradition," al-Kidra said. "Most Gazans can't believe they've finally managed to get an animal. They ask themselves: why should I pay for a butcher when I can slaughter it myself?"Commentators also were disapproving."Killing an animal has standards," Sami Abu Ajwa pleaded on Gaza's al-Quds radio Saturday.He said under Islamic law, animals shouldn't see each other being killed, they should be soothed, given water and slaughtered quickly with a sharp knife to minimize suffering.Those regulations are widely ignored through the Arab world however.
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