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Unprecedented Acts Involving Sheep

As much as we try to keep this on a family-friendly level, some days it's harder than others. Take, for example, this tale of oil and lanolin, wherein expatriate oil workers are accused of performing "unprecedented" acts with two sheep. In Algeria. Exactly which part was "unprecedented" is left for the reader to decide.

?Schlumberger? sacks Two Britons for zoophelia
on Tuesday, December 25 @ 13:18:30 CST

In an unprecedented act of its kind, two British workers from the French oil company ?Schlumberger? were sacked following sexual zoophelia [sic] on two sheep intended to be sacrificed for the ?Eid Al Adhha? ? a ritual followed by Muslims in which they slay a sheep to celebrate Abraham?s devotion to god [sic].

This unprecedented act that shocked the people of Hassi Messaoud (southern part of Algeria) took place on the eve of ?Eid? celebrations, when the two drunken workers abused two sheep in a warehouse nearby the company?s restaurant.

The two animals were supposed to be sacrificed for 30 foreign workers including Algerians working for other foreign oil companies. Both zoophilous have been surprised dong their heinous act by the restaurant?s workers and some watchmen and immediately denounced them to their mangers.

The news spread like powder throughout the surrounding oil companies and provoked a wave of panic as well as a stressful situation within ?Schlumberger?. All attempts to get in touch with this company?s managers were in vain and nobody dared to comment on the matter.

This event occurred few days only after the zealous sermons delivered by some French Clerics in the Kabylia region, who cast doubt on the legitimacy of this ritual which, according to them is unfounded? in the major religion. To recall, another major misconduct occurred in the region of Ain Salah (southern Algeria) where pamphlets hurting Islam were sent via emails of the companies working in the same area.

The entire report lives here.
So, was it the firing of the two Brits that was "unprecedented"? Our guess is that a company the size of Schlumberger fires people all the time. Was it the part about having sexual relations with sheep? We're prepared to believe that the thought of zoophilia has never occurred to anyone in Algeria before this, but we think it's unlikely. Was it that the molested sheep were intended to be ritually slain and then eaten?
Imagine if it had been a couple of pigs.
American stock markets were closed today, but Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) closed at 95.83, up 1.19. Tomorrow is anybody's guess. We think Schlumberger is in cahoots with the local elites a strong enough company to weather the rioting that usually follows these incidents, which, as the report says, are "unprecedented."
Our first and last contact with the Eid al Adha was in about 1987, when a couple of Muslim students at Fort Hays State University decided to mark the holy day with a trip to the Ram's Head Inn in Rooks County, Kansas. They bought a sheep, killed it in the driveway next to the garage, cut it up and carried it back to Hays for dinner. The whole thing struck us as more unremarkable than unprecedented, but we wrote it up and it came out in the Sunday paper.
A couple of days later, we learned that JR, the proprietor of the Ram's Head Inn (not really an "Inn", but rather picturesque name JR had chosen for his farm) had been visited by minions of the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Acting on a tip from someone who had read the newspaper, they advised him that he was operating a custom slaughtering facility (an act prohibited these days by K.S.A. 65-6a31), and threatened him with dire consequences if he ever did it again. When we related the story to one of our local judges, he opined that, since this was a religious observance, the State of Kansas had no business requiring them to get a license to kill or butcher sheep.
Now, we're not so sure. While there are some acts that cease to be exactly criminal in nature if the perpetrator says, "Allahu Akbar" at the time, killing livestock at an illegal custom slaughtering facility probably isn't one of them. In fact, it was sort of like the time the Jehovah's Witnesses were building the new Kingdom Hall next door and started bulldozing the parking lot at 11:00 p.m. Even the police thought that was a little late in the day.

Full post as published by West Neanderthal Drive on December 25, 2007 (boomark / email).