The streets of Dhaka in Bangladesh have been turned into literal rivers of blood and 79 sheep lay brutally butchered in Austria as Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha by mass slaughtering animals.
The Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha currently dominates the calendars of Muslims worldwide and a large feature of the festival is the ritual halal slaughter of animals.
Rain and floods meant that the official government designated “kill zones” were unable to be used by the public to carry out the slaughter, which involves the slitting of the throat of an animal, usually a goat, sheep, or cow, and letting it bleed to death.
Instead, the sacrifices were carried out everywhere and anywhere, including side streets, car parks, and garages. The result, combined with the rains, turned the streets of the capital of Bangladesh red with rivers of animal blood from the mass sacrifices that have gone on across the city, the BBC reports.
Many of the dramatic scenes were photographed by social media users in Bangladesh that show the results of the mass slaughter and were uploaded to Twitter.
In Austria, authorities in the rural region of Styria found an equally gruesome sight in a farmer’s field. A Turkish Muslim had slit the throats of 79 sheep and left them to bleed out in the open.
Ritual halal slaughter is only legal in Austria in certain designated areas and the animals are required to have been sedated beforehand to lessen the trauma inflicted upon them. However, the man who committed the mass slaughter did so without any anesthetic.
He claimed he killed the sheep in that manner because he was doing his friend, the owner of the farm, a favour – though some are suspicious of the timing. The owner of the sheep told Austrian media that the Turkish man required the use of the pasture that the animals were on and so began to kill them in order to save the owner the trouble of finding a new place to graze them.
Fortunately for the animals, someone noticed the Turkish man carrying out his brutal work and was able to stop him before he killed all 131 sheep.
Austrian animal rights campaigners have demanded that the government issue a political statement on the matter saying that everyone in Austria, regardless of their belief, should follow Austrian laws.
The terrorist Islamic State have also celebrated the holiday in their own brutal way by hanging prisoners from meat hooks and sacrificing them the same way as Muslims sacrifice animals. Last year Islamic State executed three Christian prisoners during the festival and made several others beg for ransoms.