KARACHI - Animal sellers across the City are not ready at all to sell even a feeble goat of just 15kg for less than Rs18,000. They are demanding Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 for normal size goat and sheep, while demanding Rs40,000 to 80,000 for an average bull or cow.Dozens of citizens seem frustrated roaming in the market due to irrational demands of the traders for an ordinary animal, revealed a survey conducted by The Nation.A majority of people may not be able to sacrifice animals individually on Eidul Azha due to increasing prices for last two years. Just ahead of Eid, the cattle market packed with multiple colours of animals with different prices and ranges, where buyers overcrowded, but high prices goats, sheep, and cow compel them to opt for collective sacrifices. On the other side people are planning for buying their sacrificial during 2nd or 3rd day of Eid where prices come down and seller who comes across the country try to sell their animals at any cost to save their expenses.   According to unofficial reports, around 0.4 million sacrificial cows, 150,000 goats and 3,000 camels exist in the City for the holy religious festival. Several sacrificial animals have been brought here from different parts of the country, including Thatta, Larkana, Rahim Yar Khan, Bhawalpur and Multan, he added.Talking about the reason of price hike, the traders were of the view that the sharp increase in petroleum prices during the last few months in the country was the main reason behind the issue, while the huge charges on account of logistics provided by the administration was another reason. He added that the price hike in POL products has badly affected the animal trade as the fares of transportation has been augmented up to Rs70,000 per trailer, coming from Punjab as compared to the last year. Unjustified increased in the fares of transportation was major reason in the soaring prices of animals. Animal trader, Hadi Buksh said that the merchants had no hand in the inflated prices. “We buy them at high prices, so we are compelled to sell them at expensive rates,” he said. Another animal trader Gul Nazir, while controlling a cow with the help of a rope, said he bought the animal from Punjab. He said he would charge Rs10,000 over the cow’s original price as it took him five days to bring the animal from Punjab to Karachi due to transportation issues. “I have no other way to recover the transportation charges, except by increasing the price,” he argued.According to some customers, the price hike is the direct result of greedy traders wanting to exploit the Eid season and other special occasions to make quick gains. Other customers believe that the remarkable increase in animal prices is caused by high demand and low supply.However, customers believe that the traders were taking advantage of the season and robbing them.