Parental guidance suggested

If you or your children are at all sensitive about animal death, be careful to avoid the buffalo slaughter day of each funeral.

Our family chose day two of one funeral party, knowing that while the party would be in full swing, we would still be well clear of slaughtering of the buffalo later in the week.

We particularly wanted to avoid this for my five-year-old daughter, who is so sensitive to the suffering of animals she insists fishermen throw back their fish on the grounds that their families will miss them too much. But there is another trap for travelers wanting to avoid animal blood: the pigs brought as funeral gifts and butchered each day to feed guests staying overnight.

Each new set of pigs brought to the funeral, trussed and tied to poles, sensed what their fate was soon to be, and their squeals often overwhelmed the singers and bamboo orchestra entertainment.

Their distress was far too much for my children. Within minutes of our family being seated as guests of honor, my daughter was screaming hysterically, my seven-year-old son weeping openly and my 12-year-old boy saying, "This is gruesome, so cruel to the pigs, can we go please?"

Thinking of all the airfares and minibus hours invested, we asked them to give it a try for a little longer, and concentrate on the parades, dancers and drummers.

Then my daughter needed a toilet break, so we tried to creep between the buildings to get to the bush out the back of the compound for a moment of privacy. Instead, we found that every exit from the compound busy with people slaughtering and butchering pigs.

"No more pigs!" my daughter finally yelled, as I picked her up, covered her eyes, stepped over some innards and finally found an unbloodied bit of dirt for her. We left the funeral soon after, with the kids asking why their friends get taken to Eurodisney and they go to a slaughterhouse.

-- Jacqueline Mackenzie