Hides can be damaged due to improper care

LAHORE
Almost 25 percent of total hides and skins of sacrificial animals can be damaged due to improper care and handling by the devotees during three days of Eid-ul-Azha.
Chairman Hide and Skin Improvement Sub-Committee Pakistan Tanners Association Agha Saidian talking to The News said that due to humid and hot weather, hide and skin started decaying after four hours of slaughtering. ‘If the treatment of the hide and skin is done within four hour of slaughtering then decay could be avoided”, he said adding that only Rs 20 salt is enough to preserve a skin.
Agha Saidian said if the family, who is performing slaughtering of a sacrificial animal, gives one kilogram salt to butcher for treating the hide or skin then it will be safe from weather harshness.
Usually, when the hide and skin reached a collection point by the evening, it had already decayed as none of the family member cared about the animal skin while putting it in some corner of home till a hide collector approached to collect it. Decaying of a hide and skin is quicker if it is put in a polythene bag as humidity exists in the bag, Agha Saidian said.
In the humid and hot weather, hide and skin start decaying quickly with hair slip. Good leather cannot be produced after the chemical process applied during the tanning from a hair slip skin, Agha disclosed.
According to the estimates of the PTA almost Rs 1.5 billion worth hides and skins are damaged due to improper care and handling during the last Eid-ul-Azha while almost the same amount worth loss is expected this season too. The PTA has anticipated the collection of over seven million raw hides and skins this year from Eid-ul-Azha sacrificial animals out of which almost 25 percent can be damaged which cause Rs 1.5 to 1.75 billion loss to the hides and skins collectors which are mainly social welfare institutions, hospitals, religious seminaries, schools and others.