KUALA LUMPUR: Let the slaughter period begin. For Malaysia, it is starting early this year, with some 3,000 cows having arrived in the country from Thailand, said Perlis Agriculture, Agro-based Industry and Cooperative Development Committee Chairman Sabry Ahmad. He reported that 3,000 cows have been imported from Thailand through Padang Besar near here for the upcoming Hari Raya Aidil Adha festival, or Eid al-Adha. He said 1,200 cows would be reserved for Perlis and the rest supplied to Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Johor. They are ritually slaughtered on the first day of the holiday by Muslims around the world. Speaking to reporters after attending a briefing by Department of Malaysian Quarantine Inspection Services, director, Khairi Arif here, he said the cows were already at the center and would be distributed after the required 10-day quarantine. Malaysian animal rights activists have condemned the importing of the animals, saying the government should not be involved in “animal cruelty.” But their pleas are largely to fall on deaf ears, considering the country is majority Muslim. And even the Muslim animal rights activists lament the upcoming mass slaughter across the Islamic world. “It is a sad time for animals. One of the worst days for cows, sheep, goats and camels, and one that I, as a Muslim do not believe the Prophet would have supported,” Jawal Nassim told Bikyamasr.com. “We now have to sit, smell the dying flesh and hear their screams.”
