Pr. William Orders End to Lambs' Slaughter

[DuctapeFatwa]

Prince William County officials have ordered a man who they say illegally slaughtered and sold about 100 lambs over the weekend near Haymarket to stop the operation or face criminal sanctions. ...Ahmed Rababeh said yesterday that the slaughter was an important part of celebrating the Islamic holiday of Eid-al-Adha, which commemorates sacrifice at the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The lambs were then sold to families to prepare for a traditional feast.

..neighbors of his property objected to what they considered a slaughterhouse. They complained that their horses were spooked by all the killing and the vultures it attracted and that roads were jammed with customers.

Rababeh said he was angry at what he described as cultural insensitivity that bordered on discrimination. He said no one complains when Christmas trees are sold at temporary locations during the holidays, or when fireworks are sold around the Fourth of July.

Dorothy Hulsey, who lives across the road, watched as dozens of customers arrived at the property. "It might have been a religious holiday, but it was a money-making business there over the weekend," she said.. The county's public works department issued a stop-work order last month on a barn Rababeh was building on his property to keep the lambs. Rababeh said he would appeal the county's order that he halt the slaughtering operations. He said county officials told him when he bought the property three months ago that what he was planning was legal. "I bought the farm to raise sheep on it," he said. "The area is full of farms and livestock. Everybody has sheep, horses and cows."
Assistant County Attorney Jeff Notz said that selling Christmas trees and fireworks is different...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10857-2004Feb3.html

[PsychoDad]

1. Here in Indiana...

We go to a couple of private/family farms where we buy the lambs and use their facilities... so there's no big deal about it. Sounds like this is what this person. Ahmed Rababeh, is doing... He has a farm where they raise these sheep for slaughter.

Last time I checked, my non-muslim friends who own farms and raise animals, such as pigs, cows and chickens, sometimes slaughter them... That's what they do on a farm.

I wonder if it was the number of sheep slaughtered for food once a year that offended these folks, or if it was the many strange looking, dark skinned men with beards that were there?

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. I'll take Door Number Two, Alec!

Next we'll read that the same guy comes home to find racist graffiti sprayed on his door.

[NickB79]

3. But in the meantime

It's ok to buy meat at the supermarket from animals fed the body parts of other animals, pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, raised in deplorable conditions on factory farms, and slaughtered much more painfully in a slaughterhouse than on this farm.

Ain't progress grande?

[oscarmitre]

4. Not the point

There is a world of difference between a slaughterhouse that is licensed to process and sell for human consumption; a farmer that is slaughtering for personal/family consumption and someone who occasionally slaughters a hundred lambs. Apart from the fact that, sick as it sounds, there is the question of humane slaughter, there are other issues such as hygiene. The officials were apparently enforcing the law impartially - I think this is a bit overdrawn.

[PsychoDad]

5. It does look as if....

The brother violated a provision of the law by slaughtering animals that were not raised there. If I read correctly, That is the primary law violated here.

But the story also makes it look as if the neighbors were also making charges which were not validated...

I don't live there, so I don't know the full story/truth. In these parts of the woods, the slaughtering is only done one day out of the year, so perhaps that will give the man who owns the farm an opportunity to comply with the law for next year.

I do hope there was no racial/cultural/religious discrimination here, but these days it seams all to prevalent.

[Laughing Mirror]

6. There goes the neighborhood all right

The west end of Prince William County is changing from rural to "upscale" developments, so that leaves no room for the small farmers and poor country people who have been there for centuries and are being chased out not by other farmers but by land developpers.

A piece in the local Potomac News paper adds some insight:

"I'm not going to live in a county like this with a slaughterhouse down the street," said Dianne Frum, a neighbor. "They tried to do an upscale thing here ... and a couple of miles down the road here they have a slaughterhouse. Are you joking? I'm just sick about this."

http://www.potomacnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WPN%2FMGArticle%2FWPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031773478283&path=!frontpage

[BiggJawn]

8. I've seen this happen before...

Developer buys a farm, builds "McMansions", then the "Elite" move in and start telling their neighbours how to live their lives.
When this happens in an inner-city neighbourhood, it's called "Gentrification". That's where I learned that the only thing I had in common with MY neighbours was skin colour and a love of old houses.Most of them were jerks.

[lazarus]

7. So Clarice will finally be at peace?

:evilgrin:

[ScrewyRabbit]

9. Damn, you beat me to it!