Eid al-Adha: How to Choose a Healthy Sacrifice Animal

Quick answer

Pick an animal that is alert, eating and walking soundly, with clear eyes, a clean nose, firm droppings and the age your school of thought requires. Check the teeth for age and go over the whole body for defects. Pass on any animal that is weak, lame, coughing or scouring. For specific religious rulings, ask a local scholar.

The basics of eligibility (keep it simple)

The mainstream view is that a sacrifice animal should be healthy, at least the required minimum age, and free of major defects. The major defects usually mentioned are blindness or clearly visible eye disease, obvious lameness, serious illness and extreme thinness. Minimum ages, and how smaller defects such as horn damage, ear cuts or missing teeth are treated, differ between schools of thought, so if anything is unclear ask a local scholar before you buy. This guide sticks to what you can check with your own eyes and hands, which is the animal's health.

Step-by-step health check at the market

Don't rush. A decent seller will let you handle the animal and watch it walk. Check in daylight if you can.

1. Watch from a distance first

Before touching the animal, stand back and watch it for a minute or two. A healthy one is alert and interested, with its head up and ears moving, reacting to people and noise. It stands evenly on all four legs rather than resting one leg or hunching. Breathing is calm and quiet, with no heaving flanks or open-mouth panting in cool weather. Cattle, goats and sheep that chew the cud while resting are showing you a good sign.

A dull animal standing apart from the group with its head low is a warning.

2. Walk it

Ask the seller to walk the animal on firm, level ground. Watch for the head nodding, short steps, a dragged foot or reluctance to put weight on a leg. Lameness is one of the most common disqualifying defects, and it is easy to miss in a crowded pen.

3. Head and teeth

• Eyes: bright and clear, with no cloudiness, discharge or swelling. Check both.
• Nose: clean or slightly moist. Thick yellow or green discharge suggests infection.
• Mouth: no drooling, and no sores or blisters on the gums, tongue or lips. Blisters together with lameness can point to foot-and-mouth disease; see Foot-and-Mouth Disease: What Livestock Owners Should Do.
• Teeth: count the broad permanent incisors on the lower jaw to estimate age (see the table below).

4. Body and skin

Run your hands along the back, ribs and hips. There should be some cover over the spine and ribs, not sharp bones. Check for:

• Lumps, abscesses or swellings, especially under the jaw and in front of the shoulder.
• Firm, raised skin nodules over the body in cattle, a sign of lumpy skin disease (see Lumpy Skin Disease in Cattle).
• Hair loss, crusts, heavy ticks or lice.
• A swollen left side of the belly, which may mean bloat or heavy feeding just before sale.

5. Rear end and droppings

The tail and hindquarters should be clean. Watery, smelly or bloody droppings stuck to the tail and legs mean diarrhoea. Goat and sheep droppings are normally firm pellets, and cattle dung should be soft but formed.

Teeth and approximate age

Treat these as rough guides. Feeding, breed and the individual animal all make a difference, so use teeth as one piece of evidence and ask your scholar which age signs they accept.

Red flags: walk away if you see these

• Lameness, swollen joints or overgrown, split hooves
• Cloudy or blind eye, or heavy eye discharge
• Drooling, mouth blisters or sores on the feet
• Coughing, nasal discharge, fast or noisy breathing
• Diarrhoea, especially with blood
• Very thin animal with prominent spine and hip bones
• Fever signs: dull, off feed, hot ears, shivering
• A belly that looks tight and drum-like on the left
• A seller who will not let you handle or walk the animal

Watch out for common seller tricks

Some sellers give salt and plenty of water, or a heavy grain meal, just before sale so the animal looks fuller. Others colour or oil the coat to hide skin problems, or file the horns to change how the animal looks. Buy from a seller you know where possible and visit more than once if you can. Be wary of an animal that drinks huge amounts of water when it gets home. A verified listing with clear photos, a video of the animal walking and the seller's history lowers the risk.

Getting it home safely

• Transport it in a vehicle with sides, a non-slip floor and shade. Don't tie an animal by the neck in a moving vehicle, and don't pack animals in tightly.
• Avoid the hottest hours. Heat stress is a real danger when Eid falls in summer, so travel early in the morning or in the evening.
• On arrival, give shade, clean water and the same kind of feed it had at the market. Change feed gradually. A sudden switch to lots of grain or lush green fodder can bring on bloat or diarrhoea (see Bloat and Diarrhoea in Goats).
• Keep it calm. Children love the animal, but keep chasing, loud noise and constant handling to a minimum.
• Secure the area so it can't get out onto the road or eat plastic, rubbish or toxic plants.

Caring for the animal until Eid

Give it shade and airflow, clean water at all times, and a balanced ration of green fodder, dry fodder and a modest amount of concentrate. Check on it twice a day. Is it eating, drinking, chewing the cud and passing normal droppings? If it turns dull, stops eating, starts limping or develops diarrhoea or a swollen belly, call a vet promptly. A treated animal may need time to recover, and some medicines have a withdrawal period before the meat can be eaten, so tell the vet the animal is for sacrifice.

In Pakistan

Eid animal markets in cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad get very crowded, and disease spreads quickly where animals from many areas are mixed together. Beetal, Teddy and Barbari crosses are popular goat choices, while cattle buyers often look at Sahiwal, Cholistani and crossbred bulls. Prices climb sharply in the last few days and vary enormously by size, breed and city, so compare several animals before deciding. Summer Eids bring serious heat; sort out shade and water before you buy. Many local scholars go by the "two teeth" (dant) sign for goats, but confirm with your own scholar.

Looking for a healthy animal for Eid with clear seller details? Browse livestock on Paalo.