SMITHFIELD - A tangle between a farmer and the state has left hundreds of Muslim families without a place to perform the ritual slaughter of lambs today at the start of the three-day Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha.

Late Tuesday, several Muslim families from Wake and Johnston counties asked a Johnston County judge to lift the ban he put on Princeton farmer Eddie Rowe to host a mass slaughter today. They urged Johnston County Superior Court Judge Tom Lock to turn to the highest law of the land -- the U.S. Constitution -- to eliminate what they consider a hindrance on their religious practice.

Lock declined, saying the ban did not prevent the free exercise of religion because the families were free to slaughter their own lambs at a state-licensed facility. Lock barred the slaughter at the Rowe farm at the request of state agriculture officials, who say the farm does not have the proper sanitary facilities.

For many customers, it was too late to make other arrangements.

"We haven't made any other preparations," said Ahmed Mamai, a research chemist who works in Research Triangle Park. "It's a cheap shot to come in a few days before the holiday and expect us to find another way."

Lock gently chided the state Department of Agriculture for seeking an emergency order so close to Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice.

Eddie Rowe and his father, Kenneth Rowe, pig and hay farmers in southern Johnston County, have long been at odds with the state for hosting the slaughters for the Islamic holiday. The state insists that the Rowes must build a custom slaughter facility to comply with laws governing meat inspection and animal slaughter. The Rowes said such a building would cost $740,000.

In 2005, the Rowes successfully turned to the courts to defend their operation. Since then, the state has fined the Rowes $10,000. They have not paid and argue they shouldn't have to.

"This whole thing has frustrated me to no end," Eddie Rowe said. "I've been tempted to just hang it up, but these people have become my friends, and this is important to them."

Many Muslims simply order meat slaughtered according to "halal" or Muslim dietary law. Rowe's customers, however, wish to strictly adhere to tradition and personally slaughter the animal. In keeping with "halal," the animal must be killed with a sharp knife across the throat. Both carotid arteries must be cut at once so that the animal bleeds quickly and dies quietly. A prayer is said before the knife is drawn.

Nothing prohibits Rowe's customers from slaughtering their lambs at their homes.

But Driss Elhanafi, a lab manager at N.C. State University, said he lives in an apartment complex and fears his neighbors would call the police if they saw him try to kill a lamb.

Mamai, too, said he wouldn't even think of bringing it back to his house in a Raleigh subdivision. He fears it wouldn't be sanitary. Plus, he knows his wife wouldn't go for it.

"If we give this up this year, what will it be next?" Mamai said. "In a generation, our religion will be so diluted that we will lose our identity."