DAKAR: When Cheikh Moustapha Seck, a 24-year-old sheep breeder from Senegal, speaks about his animals, his face lights up.
“You need love and patience to work with the sheep,” said Seck, affectionately stroking the long neck of Sonko, his champion sheep, named after the country’s new prime minister.
Sonko is no ordinary sheep. It is a locally bred Ladoum, the equivalent of a Ferrari among the woolly creatures. The majestic-looking Ladoum can weigh up to 397 pounds (180 kilograms), and it has made this coastal West African nation famous among breeders.
As Muslims worldwide prepare to celebrate Eid Al-Adha this weekend, the second most important holiday in the Islamic calendar, the Ladoum get their moment to shine.
During Tabaski, as the holiday is locally known, Muslims commemorate the Qur’anic tale of Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice Ismail as an act of obedience to God. They kill and eat a sheep, making the animal extremely sought after in the days before the holiday.
Sonko the sheep was born last year, when its namesake Ousmane Sonko was still an imprisoned opposition leader and seemingly far from leading the country. Just like him, Sonko the sheep “was a warrior and our hope,” Seck said.
As political events have calmed since Senegal’s election earlier this year, this weekend’s celebrations have new life. People have turned their attention from protests to pampering — the prize sheep, at least.
Celebrated for their gleaming white fur and symmetrical horns, the Ladoum is most often bought for prestige breeding and beauty contests, and not to be eaten. On Eid Al-Adha, like Ibrahim’s son, they will be spared.
Very few in Senegal can afford a Ladoum. Worth up to $70,000, the sheep is the ultimate symbol of social prestige in a country where the GDP per capita does not exceed $1,600. After years of record inflation, many struggle to afford regular sheep at prices starting from around $280.
The Ladoum spend their days being groomed, massaged and fed syringes of vitamins in special parlors, decorated with photos of champion sheep and their lineage.
Balla Gadiaga, a parlor owner who inherited the passion for sheep from his parents, said his clients come from all over the African continent.
“Just yesterday, I had someone from Abuja on the phone,” he said, referring to Nigeria’s capital. “We sell to clients in Senegal but also in Gambia, Nigeria, Mali. Everywhere.”
His favorite sheep is named BRT after the acronym for electric buses driving around Dakar, the capital. It is of “excellent measurements” and “extraordinary beauty,” he said. It is also worth $40,000, a deal compared to Gadiaga’s most expensive at over $65,000.
Gadiaga said the sheep are not only great business but also a source of happiness.
“When you are stressed out and you go in front of the sheep, you are cool,” he said. “You feel at ease.”
On Eid Al-Adha, Senegal’s star sheep are for luxury, not sacrifice
https://arab.news/2t35t
On Eid Al-Adha, Senegal’s star sheep are for luxury, not sacrifice
- The animals that can fetch tens of thousands of dollars live a life of luxury in special parlors where they are massaged, groomed and fed syringes full of vitamins
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
