Abo Kalal, age 34, of Detroit and Alhadray, age 31, an Iraqi refugee were stopped by police after witnesses reported seeing the men beat and kick an ewe at Buddy's convenience store in Clinton Township after it escaped the trunk of the car.
Initially the two were charged with felony animal torture but the case was reduced to misdemeanor charges after the witnesses contradicted police reports at the court hearing on November 4th, 2002.
The ewe went into convulsions and died of suffocation when it was transported in an unventilated trunk in 90-degree weather. Police found 2 dead chickens and 4 live chickens in the trunk of the car and a backseat filled with chickens and ducks when the men stopped for gas at the Irish Hills Convenience Store on U.S. 12 at M-124.
The 2 men testified through an interpreter that they bought the sheep, chickens and ducks at an auction in Hilldale. They were taking them back to Detroit for slaughter under Islamic custom when they were stopped.
The men pleaded guilty to improperly transporting an animal. Lenawee County District Judge James E.Sheridan ordered each man to pay $800 in fines and costs and placed them on probation for a year after which their records could be expunged.
The judge stated "If I thought for a minute that this case was an act of intentional cruelty we would be talking jail" but he was satisfied the case involved ignorance of proper animal care.
Defense attorney Mosabi Hamed of Southfield pointed out that the 2 Muslim men bought the livestock at the Hillsdale auction and were taking them to their local butcher where the animals are blessed and the meat processed according to Islamic custom. Under the Muslim faith, he said, an animal that is to be sacrificed cannot be injured or mistreated. "If the animal is wounded, you cannot eat that animal, until it is nursed back to health and can be blessed". The men testified that they had folded the back seat down and had the air conditioner on and they had stopped at several convenience stores on the way home to get water for the animals. The attorney described the case as that of cultural confusion and not animal cruelty. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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