Nigeria: Lagos Abattoir - Where Unhealthy Cattle Are Slaughtered for Public Consumption (I)

29 December 2013
analysis

Lagos — A first time visitor to the Kara section of the Oko-Oba Abattoir, especially from its widest entry point, is most likely to be welcomed by the mooing of robust cattle of different sizes. But as one approaches the tail end of the sprawling open field, one is confronted with frail and haggard-looking cattle, some of which are in perpetual prostrate position. As a result of ill-health, they often depreciate in weight and sizes while a sea of mucus freely flows from their nostrils. While some of them still manage to eat the wheat and grass meant to keep them alive, others are just too weak to eat anything.

"We call these type Gurugu. They are as normal as other cattle you see standing there. They are kept separately because they had travelled far distances before arriving in Lagos. They have become exhausted. And most of them are cows. Nothing do them," Alasa Momodu, a shabbily dressed cattle marketer who accosted this reporter, having mistaken him for a serious buyer, said.

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