HALAL SLAUGHTER ASSISTANCE DURING EID AL-ADHA IN EAST KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL EVALUATION OF ANIMAL WELFARE CHALLENGES, HUMAN RESOURCE CAPACITY, AND COMMUNITY-BASED SLAUGHTER PRACTICES
Keywords:
Animal welfare, casting and restraint, Eid al-Adha, halal slaughterer, human resource capacityAbstract
Eid al-Adha concentrates the slaughter of thousands of cattle and goats into a few days, mostly at mosques, schools and neighbourhood sites without abattoir facilities. Indonesia meets this demand with volunteer and semi-professional halal slaughterers, but little is known about how that assistance is deployed. This cross-sectional study analysed aggregated post-event reports from officers of Dakwah Sembelih Halal (DSH) East Kalimantan for Eid al-Adha 1447 H (2026), covering 156 sites in six regencies and cities, 1,115 animals (749 cattle or buffalo, 366 goats) and 743 personnel. We used chi-square tests, Wilson 95% confidence intervals and directed content analysis against the Five Domains model. Samarinda accounted for 71.2% of sites and 66.3% of animals. Animal load per site departed from site share (χ2 = 254.3, P < 0.001), ranging from 3.5 animals per site in Kutai Kartanegara to 17.8 in Balikpapan, and species mix differed by region (χ2 = 28.8, P < 0.001; Cramér's V = 0.16). DSH officers performed the neck cut at 97.4% of sites (95% CI 93.6-99.0), casting at 62.8% (55.0-70.0) and skinning at 34.0% (27.0-41.7). Officers ranked a shortage of skilled skinners and non-uniform casting technique as the two most frequent constraints. Trained labour was concentrated at the cut, while handling before it and carcass work after it relied on untrained committees. A standard casting protocol, a skinner training track, load-based deployment and animal-based indicators in the reporting form would address the largest gaps.
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