Poor goat, by Michael N

In the Uighur area of Kashgar I was sitting resting on a bench when I heard a goat bleating and looked across and saw a goat on the footpath with legs tired and head hanging over the gutter in a large metal bowl. Kneeling beside him was a man who proceeded to cut the poor goat's throat with the blood running into the bowl. Another man brought an air pump that you pump with your feet, slit a leg, pushed the rubber hose up the leg and proceeded to inflate the goat to at least twice it's size. He then turned the goat on its back, skinned it and completed the actual butchering on the footpath. After all, this was outside a 'butchers shop' and with late night trading he had to prepare his stock.

All this time people were walking past ignoring what was happening while another goat that was tethered to a nearly pole was bleating very loudly; understandable, having witnessed his own fate. It sure is a different world here.


Michael Noyce