Posted 1/29/2005 02:24:00 PM by Douglas

Let's say you want to slaughter a lamb that will later be used in religious ceremony. Is it ok to slaughter it if you work in a State Veterinarian and Diagnostic Lab? And when exactly does a slaughter become a sacrifice? These are all very good questions, and would you believe they're being asked in Amarillo, Texas?

Last week's slaughter of a lamb prior to a religious feast has embroiled a state laboratory in controversy and apparently caused deep divisions among the staff.

Several employees of Amarillo's Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, which is associated with Texas A&M University, have said during the past two days that they and their co-workers are outraged that two veterinarians sacrificed a lamb prior to their observance of the Muslim holiday Feast of the Sacrifice.

Ok, that's a bit strange. But it gets better.

Dr. Lelve G. Gayle, executive director of the lab system, said Wednesday that he conducted an investigation and found no evidence of any religious ceremony during the slaughter. He did find, however, that the slaughter violated lab regulations about taking animals from the lab for personal consumption, which could be problematic because the lab tests animals from across the state for a variety of dangerous diseases.

That was my first question. . . who would buy meat from a "Diagnostics Lab?" Well, apparently lots of people.

Topliff pointed out that if the procedure is truly religious, then a lot of state agencies, including WT, would find themselves in a bind. WT's meat lab, which sells meat to the public that is slaughtered for educational and research purposes, has often followed the Halaal procedure in the past and sold the resulting meat to Muslims.

This sounds like a bunch of inter-office squabbling among a bunch of people that don't get along. But research veterinarians performing religious sacrifices may go down as the very best example as to why you shouldn't blur the line between your personal and your professional lives.