Ten or twenty years ago it was unthinkable to use Tuna for offering; turtle was the only sea creature use widely for offering besides the regular land animal such as pig, duck or chicken. The ban on using turtle for offering in early 1990s and the steady rise of pig, duck, and chicken price force Balinese to find alternative meat for offering and Tuna is the most favorite alternative meat.

Tuna meat has some advantages over other meats - the abundance of supply, cheap and simple cooking process. These contribute greatly for the popularity of Tuna as alternative meat for offering. Balinese usually purchase frozen Tuna, grind it and mix it with grated coconut and spices to make sate lilit for selam (a kind of offering which does not use pork) offering. The teenagers of Bali also love to make sate lilit from Tuna, eat as accompaniment of Tuak or Arak (traditional Balinese liquor) since it is quite affordable for their pocket.

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Animal sacrifices or using animals in religious ceremonies is obligatory in Bali. Most of Balinese ceremonies require one or more animal to be scarified. Killing animal in this way is not considered a cruelty. When animal is killed in sacrifice, it acquires karma, enough perhaps, to allow it to be reincarnated at higher level. The body is not important to the Hindu faithful. It is shell. Animal that is killed for a sacrifice is always treated with a great reverence. Offering are made to it. Mantras are recited, asking for improved status in the next life. An animal cannot be sacrificed without these prayers and offerings.

Animals that are sacrificed are various range from chicken, duck, goose, pig, dog, turtle, goat, water buffaloes, eagles even tiger. The animal sacrifices mostly occur in Bhuta Yadnya (rites for demon) ceremonies since demons love to see and taste blood and flesh. This bhuta yadnya is usually conducted to appease the demon and to restore the balance of positive and negative force.

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The enormous water-buffaloes, which in Bali appear in two colors, a dark muddy gray, and a pale, almost transparent pink, an albino variety are usually found in the river with their masters, small boys wearing only oversize sun-hats. A water-buffalo will not hesitate to attack a tiger; their ponderous calm and their gigantic horns are awe-inspiring to Europeans, who have been told that their odor infuriates the buffaloes. They have often charged white people for no apparent reason, although the smallest Balinese boy can manhandle the great beasts. They love to lie in the water and be scrubbed by their little guardians, who climb all over them and hang from their horns when they take them for their evening bath. The buffalo tolerates the children perhaps as a rhinoceros tolerates the birds that eat the ticks on its back.

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