In Smithfield, North Carolina, a Johnston County judge yesterday issued a temporary restraining order preventing farmer Eddie Rowe from again opening his Princeton (NC) farm to Muslim families who wish to slaughter lambs for Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice). According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Rowe charges individuals $160 for a lamb which they can personally slaughter on his 300-acre farm. State agriculture officials insist that Rowe must build a custom slaughterhouse to protect against disease and unsanitary conditions. Rowe says that would cost $740,000. Apparently, however, under North Carolina law (NCGS Sec. 106-549.27) individuals could take the lambs back to their own residences and slaughter them there under an exemption for non-commercial slaughter.
Rowe's attorney, Glenn Barfield, hopes that some of Rowe's customers will appear in court next week when a hearing will be held on whether to make the slaughter ban at Rowe's farm permanent. Those individuals could raise free exercise objections to the ban imposed by the court. Eid al Adha begins next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Raleigh's Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation is offering local Muslims an alternative. They can donate money which the Foundation will use to have cows killed at a licensed slaughterhouse. The meat will be butchered and distributed to charities.
UPDATE: On Tuesday, the court rejected a request from several Muslim families in Wake and Johnston counties that it lift the injunction. Johnston County Superior Court Judge Tom Lock said that the order does not infringe the families' free exercise of religion because they can still slaughter their own lambs at a state-licensed facility. (News & Observer, Dec. 19).
