ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: In this holiday season the ultimate satisfaction is not at the climax – when the animal is scarified – but during the course of the holidays, when all the family activities are happening.

One such joyous activity is when parents see their children feeding or taking care of the sacrificial animal.

The level of excitement can be gauged from one happy-go-luck teenager, Muhammed Ali, who says: “It was decided that I will handle the goat and be responsible for feeding it.”However, the feeding menu has been altered by the elders, he complains. Informing that according to the revised menu, only fodder and grass would be given to the goat.

Another young resident, Kumail Ali informs: “My father brought straw and other dry feed for our bull, but I bought fresh grass from my own pocket money. And then we clean the entire leftover daily and bring fresh fodder.”

The trickle down effect of this love and affection for the sacrificial animal brings business to makeshift stalls selling feed and fodder for sacrificial animals.

Feeding being a round the clock activity, prices of feed and fodder have gone up by around 100 per cent and as Eidul Azha nears, more stalls are being established.

Since Rawalpindi and Islamabad do not have a strong dairy base; many of the people establishing feed stalls have arrived from other cities – mainly Central Punjab.

One such person is Abdullah, hailing from Faisalabad.

He not only sells dry and wet fodder at his open air stall, near Sitara market, but also gives advisory tips to his customers.

“People are not aware of the requirements and the needs of animals – so we tell them how to make a combination of different kinds of feed,” he says, “We sell items for four and five days and earn good money for our family.”

The business seems better in Rawalpindi as more fodder stalls are seen in the city, as one bundle of green fodder costs between Rs30-Rs50 and people buy at least two bundles to feed their cattle, twice a day.

Though many people can be seen arguing with the sellers but ultimately the end price does not matter because it is connected to the happiness of the children.