Five Major Cheatings by Animal Merchants to sell animals on Eid Ul Adha:

Selling and buying cattle for the purpose of Qurbani at Eid ul Adha is a special and very active practice. Selling and reselling of animals leads to the passing of animals in the hands of plenty of people. As everyone in society is not equal, sometimes some people use evil practices to sell their animals at high prices. Although many people use natural practices by giving proper feed and supplements to increase weight by synthesis of meet and give good care to their animals, some peoples use a variety of ill practices to increase the artificial weight of animals, to hide illness and any disability. Following are the major ill practices by the animal merchants to sell their animals at a high rate.

• Salt & water treatment:

This is a very ancient practice and has been carried out by animal merchants for a long. Some animal merchants give salt (NaCl) to feed the cattle. After eating salt, the animal feels very thirsty and drinks water in a large amount. This practice temporarily increases the weight of the animals and also animals appear to be a little larger than their actual size. Experienced people know about this treatment by the size and shape of the belly of cattle. Sometimes this treatment leads to severe consequences including digestive problems.

• Colouring of wounds:

The wounds of cattle are very common and most of the time these are negligible. When animals are in herds the males mostly quarrel with one another. The second major cause of injuries occurs during transport or shipment. But sometimes wounds are severe and animals become crippled. The crippled and disabled cattle will not fulfill the criteria of Qurbani because Sacrificing animals (Qurbani Ka Janwar) must be perfectly healthy and free from any kind of disability. Some clever merchants use different types of stains and colors to hide wounds. Unexperienced people perceive that the color is for the purpose of beauty and ornamentation of the animal for the event of Eid ul Adha.

• Use of Bovine Somatotrophin hormone:

To increase weight long-term feed and supplement is a natural way. But sometimes the animal keepers use various kinds of medicines that result in fast and excessive growth. Bovine Somatotropin Hormone is such a kind of drug. The bovine somatotrophin hormone is administrated to the cattle for unnatural and excessive growth. The cattle that appeared to be giants are actually Bovine Somatotropin hormone-treated cattle. This kind of meat is not too good for human consumption.  

• Painkillers administrations:

Painkillers administration by animal merchants subsides the effects of any physical injury (especially lameness). These painkillers temporarily reduce the pain in wounds and the animal feel comfortable and normal, but later in the night or second day of purchase animal will be under stress and this leads to other health-related problems.

• Physically damaged teeth:

Normally two-toothed age of the sheep and goat is about 12 months to 19 months and the cow is 24 months to 30 months. But animal merchants physically damage the teeth of cattle to make them fall within the criteria. This is a very common practice.

All these practices are observed and noted by ourselves. Many other cheating strategies are used, but these are of little importance. The purpose of this work is to aware our readers of such kinds of fraud and fraudulent people. We are happy if you share any of your suggestions or bad experiences you have in the animal market. This will make safe other people from any kind of ambiguity and bogus situations.