Animal cruelty in Pakistan and the Muslim world

I was emailed this picture above last Eid by a friend. It is a parody of how we celebrate Eid-Ul Adha (also known as Bakara Eid in Pakistan). Though the picture itself does not seem to be from Pakistan, it is a strong message on how we treat animals in the third world and Islamic world. Click on image to enlarge.

In all the times I've witnessed animal slaughter in Pakistan, it always seems to me that the person carrying out the slaughter or paying for the slaughter does so according to their own favorite styles, not the way Islam requires.

During Eid Ul-Adha in Pakistan my family did not slaughter animals for the occasion.
This raised many eyebrows amongst friends, relatives, acquaintances etc.

It had triggered many strong but invalid arguments from them. Their traditional arguments have been if you're a meat eater (which I am), you cannot dismiss the slaughter of animals for Eid as "cruelty."

Another argument they've pressed is that Islam requires it and that the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) went through a similar process, so to defy the custom is to defy the religion of Islam.

Here is where their arguments loose all validity. Firstly, Islam has had so many interpretations that people have yet to prove who's interpretation is right.
The Shias argue their interpretation, the Sunnis their own etc.

And even if this were a compulsory requirement in Islam (even though it is actually not), why do people cherry-pick this requirement while deliberately leaving out all the other requirements that come along with it?
According to these teachings, animals slaughtered for Eid must be brought in months before the slaughter so that the people carrying out the 'sacrifice' must get attached to the animal and love it to make it feel like a proper sacrifice.

However, this is not the case with a lot of people. They do not want to spend money on the animal's feeding and drinking needs and so they buy it within a few days or a day before Eid.
Neither do some people want to take the effort of taking care of the animal.

Then comes the slaughter part. According to Islamic principles the animal must be blindfolded during the slaughter and the tool being used to slaughter them must be sharp to make the process fast with minimum pain.

From all the animal slaughter I've seen in Pakistan in pictures, videos and actual real life, I have never seen even one animal blindfolded, nor is the process quick and painless.
Instead many people cut the the limbs of the animal before moving to the neck.

At many slaughter houses it seems to me that people actually enjoy torturing the animals. They slowly cut off the wings of hens and their legs. Even when taking out the animals from the cage to weigh it they tug the hens by their wings instead of gently carrying it in their hands.

This is extremely painful for the birds who's wings are sensitive to taking the whole weight of their body when tugged so hard. At many times the people who are carrying out the slaughter cut up the hens as if they are cutting wood, ignoring the hen's cries of pain.

Even before an Eid holiday back in the early 90s I recall a group of boys taking a goat home and tugging it by it's ears.
To many people slaughtering animals for Eid must sound like fun and their religion can be used as the perfect "justification" for this enjoyable sport, even though this is not an Islamic principle, but in fact a tradition made up by people claiming to be an Islamic tradition.

Sure it must be also fun to decorate the animal in plastic jewelry before killing it and to watch it get killed. My neighbor and schoolmates would talk about the "fun" of watching these animals getting killed.
Some of them claimed to have brought up to nine goats home.

Where is the 'sacrifice' in all of this? Bringing home animals the last few days before Eid, not attending to them, not even blindfolding them, but all geared up to watch some fantastic killing and gore.

They use the legend of Hazdrat Ibrahim attempting to 'sacrifice' his son to Khuda/God as an attempt to justify this. What in this universe or any other universe can a human being possess that almighty God/Khuda needs in "sacrifice?"

This tradition has it's roots in pagan rituals, which Islam has decried since it's very beginning.

I am sure Abraham/Ibrahim must have decorated his son in all sorts of fancies and pulled out his coolest looking sword or dagger and geared up to kill his own son (sarcasm).

On the subject of killing his own son, was not Abraham's intent to kill his own son and not the goat? Wasn't that the whole idea behind the sacrifice giving up something you really love?

Even the people who joyfully have animals slaughtered for Eid should ask themselves would they really love these goats, camels or cows more than their own children even for a second?

Should they not be sacrificing something they truly love such their own children or pets? Maybe Allah might throw a cattle or lamb in their place on the last second. Or maybe killing something you love is no fun after all, so go and kill something simpler.

As before, I acknowledge I am a meat eater. But then again I don't tug a goat by it's ears or cut off it's limbs first or use the cheapest kitchen knife to cut it up as Islam requires the knife be really sharp to cut through the animal fast. Nor do I pull a hen by it's wings.

I also try eat organically farmed meat and do my best not to consume factory farmed meat both for health and ethical reasons, even though it's more expensive than regular factory farmed meat. More recently, I've been consuming wild hunted meat.

I also encourage other Pakistanis to buy from government sanctioned meat rather than these private illigal slaughter houses that provide little to no welfare for animals.   

Until the hypocrites who take joy in killing animals for festive occasions meet the full requirements for animal slaughter in Islam, they have no right to use religion as a justification for their inhumane deeds.

Regardless of the requirements of this barbaric man-made tradition is the argument that "animal sacrifice" is actually not sanctioned by Islam. I am more believing of this than any other argument.
What "sacrifice" can a human being offer to an almighty God who or which does not need it? What does an almighty God not have that a human can offer in "sacrifice?"
Kill only when you need to. And when you need to, do it humanely or be prepared to answer for your cruelty if you are a believer. Other than that it is wrong/un-Islamic to make a sport out of killing.