**WARNING: Bloody, gorey pics and description below - make sure your stomach can handle it!**
This post is coming in a few segments, as there's a lot to tell. I spent most of the day with my neighbor's family celebrating the Eid today. At 9:30am, Youssef and Ghita came up to get me to watch the sheep slaughter. The family killed 3 sheep, one for Sabah and her husband who live on the 1st floor of my building, one for their daughter Aisha and her husband Mounir, and one for their daughter Yasmine and her husband Reda. Aisha's daughter, Ghita, was just as fascinated by the sheep slaughter as I was, but her brother Ahmed and cousins Inez and Lina were a bit young and stayed inside. Youssef, Sabah's brother, was nicknamed the "Sheep Serial Killer" as he was involved in the killing, cleaning, and cooking of all 3 sheep. They are such a wonderful, welcoming family. I'm so glad I ran into Sabah by the elevator yesterday. After today's events, I feel like part of the family! Gotta love Moroccan hospitality. :)
I showed up as the first sheep was jerking around on the floor of the terrace. Once he stopped moving, his head was completely severed and his feet broken so that he could be tied up and skinned. The second sheep was full of energy - it took a couple of people to wrestle him down. Note the blood stained floor from sheep #1. The jerking of all 3 sheep caused quite a bit of blood splatter on the walls, flowerpots, chairs, and table. I got to clean up some of that later...
Meanwhile, the butcher was skinning sheep #1.
After the skinning, the butcher took out the organs and put them all together in a big bucket.
Sheep #2 was making an awful racket. The rasping sounds as he tried to get air through his severed windpipe were pretty much just ignored. As the butcher finished his skinning and organ removal process, Sheep #2 had stopped splattering blood everywhere and died.
So he was tied up to be skinned. 
By the time this was finished, Mounir led sheep #3 out of the stairwell to be slaughtered.
With one swift motion, Reda slit his sheep's throat and the whole skinning/organ removal process began again.
Stay tuned for more info about what comes next: cleaning/eating of the organs & fat.
2 comments:
Wow! I'm sure some animal lovers would be appalled at "letting the sheep suffer", but I grew up on a farm, where killing meat to eat it happened. Very interesting. And it's all done on the roof top! I guess that's what you do if you don't have a yard or a garage or a barn or....
Can I just say that I loved that you thought to call me at 7:30am my time to tell me all about the experience you had??? I am not sad I missed your call but to tell you the truth, despite being completely horrified, I am so proud of you for experiencing new things! Miss you!
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