Hiring butcher at reasonable charges not an easy task

The residents of federal capital are busy in finding butchers at reasonable charges for slaughtering their sacrificial animals, on Eid ul Azha days. Hiring a butcher is the preference for most people. However, engaging a competent person for the job often turns out to be a nerve-testing exercise.
With Eid only a few days away, butchers are demanding Rs 2000 to Rs 2200 to dressing a goat or sheep, Rs 5,000-7,000 for a bull or calf and Rs 9,000-Rs 10,000 for a camel. Many butchers ask for advance payment for booking orders, although there is small variation in the rates from area to area.
Butchers, on the other hand, are also making preparations for slaughtering animals and meat dressing on Eid and make a huge buck. However, it is difficult to differentiate the unskilled from the skilled person. Saidpur Meat and Chicken shop owner in I-10/2 sector, Nisar Ahmad, said that Eid ul Azha provides an opportunity to the butchers to earn handsome amount by slaughtering as many animals as they can.
They charge Rs 2000 for a goat and provide quality service. A great change has been observed in the procedures as professional butchers, instead of visiting houses, stay at their shops where people bring their animals for slaughtering, as it saves time, he added.
Butchers working in groups earn Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 for large animals like cows and bulls on the first day but their income reduces in the following days. Due to dearth of skilled professionals and hugeness of the job, apprentice, unskilled, semi-skilled, and totally untrained people jump into this exercise to earn good amount of money during three days of Eid.
Professional persons are mostly booked and are paid in advance for the first day of Eid, and this year their charges have also increased as compared to last year. Professional butchers mostly prefer to wait for large orders to earn big amounts and charge heavily on Eid, as the festival once a year. The rates are at their peak on the first day of Eid but gradually come down on the following two days.
A resident, Shehzad, said that untrained butchers also cause problems with sacrificial animals, meat, and skin. Mincing bones with meat leave the meat useless for cooking and eating. "It is better to pay more amount than to repent on slaughtering animals by inefficient butchers because majority of them venture into this profession to gain experience and earn more on Eid," he said.
There is a dire need of staying away from these butchers to avoid immediate loss of sacrificial animal. It would not be out of place to mention here that if the government opens butchers' training schools to train and educate people who want to join this field, it would be beneficial for both the butchers and the meat users.
Last but not the least, butchers are the most wanted persons on Eid ul Azha. They should act with decency and behave like good citizens with their customers to add to the happiness of auspicious event. Animal sacrifice is a major feature of Eid ul Azha, and Muslims get a spiritual delight and pleasure through sacrifice and distribution of meat among the poor and distressed.
Following the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), some people prefer to sacrifice animals themselves on Eid,ul Azha. However, hiring a butcher is a usual option for the majority. In the days of price hike, when people are striving to buy sacrificial animals on proper prices, hiring a competent butcher is a job that entails a lot of stress. To perform religious obligation of sacrifice, the people who cannot afford to buy sacrificial animals, prefer joint-qurbani of cows or camels owing to high price of goats.