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Herders drive a flock of goats and Blackhead Persian sheep through the streets of Berbera, Somaliland, and onto the quay for shipment to Saudi Arabia for sacrifice during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. At night, when temperatures are cooler, they are loaded onto a livestock carrier like the Lily-J, a former Swedish car ferry that has been converted for the task. Some 2.6 million animals are slaughtered on the third day of the Hajj, which overlaps with the Muslim holy day Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, that commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham in the Old Testament and Torah) devotion to God by his willingness to sacrifice his son. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, a requirement for all Muslims at least once in their life, drawing some two million pilgrims to Mecca each year. Saudi Arabia cannot supply all the sacrificial animals needed for such a large group, so most are provided by the pastoralists of Somaliland and other areas in East Africa. During the export surge, as many as ninety thousand animals will fill the quarantine in Berbera, where they are supposed to be tested for Rift Valley fever, brucellosis, and foot-and-mouth disease.

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Herders drive a flock of goats and Blackhead Persian sheep through the streets of Berbera, Somaliland, and onto the quay for shipment to Saudi Arabia for sacrifice during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. At night, when temperatures are cooler, they are loaded onto a livestock carrier like the Lily-J, a former Swedish car ferry that has been converted for the task. Some 2.6 million animals are slaughtered on the third day of the Hajj, which overlaps with the Muslim holy day Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, that commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham in the Old Testament and Torah) devotion to God by his willingness to sacrifice his son. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, a requirement for all Muslims at least once in their life, drawing some two million pilgrims to Mecca each year. Saudi Arabia cannot supply all the sacrificial animals needed for such a large group, so most are provided by the pastoralists of Somaliland and other areas in East Africa. During the export surge, as many as ninety thousand animals will fill the quarantine in Berbera, where they are supposed to be tested for Rift Valley fever, brucellosis, and foot-and-mouth disease.

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