A Muslim resident of the southern French city of Nice recorded himself slaughtering a sheep in his bathtub for the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday and posted the video on social media.
The graphic video was posted on the social media platform Snapchat and was shared at least 1,000 times before the clip was brought to the attention of the general public by local populist National Rally politician Philippe Vardon, who publicised it on Twitter.
“Each year the eid al-Adha is the occasion of sordid scenes, now shared with pride on social networks,” Vardon wrote.
The video, which is a series of short clips, shows the Muslim man taking a sheep in his car, the sheep walking around his apartment, and then the slaughter of the sheep in the bath, which can be heard struggling to breathe while bleeding to death.
According to a report from local newspaper Nice-Presse, the man in the video, who shows his face twice, was reported to the police by Mr Vardon, as the home slaughter of animals is illegal in France and only three slaughterhouses were permitted to slaughter sheep for the Islamic festival in the region.
In neighbouring Belgium, home slaughter is also largely banned — but authorities in EU and national capital of Brussels say they found 460 carcasses of sheep on the streets, generally placed in plastic bags, following Eid al-Adha, which they claim is an increase since last year.
Just days before, authorities in two provinces in the French-speaking Wallonia region seized around 70 sheep that were set to be illegally slaughtered for the holiday.
The Belgian regions of Wallonia and Flanders have previously banned Halal slaughter, passing legislation in 2018 that banned the slaughter of animals without stunning them first.
In the United Kingdom, Muslims attempted to gather in large numbers despite Chinese coronavirus restrictions and, when confronted by police, attacked an officer, leaving him with a head injury.