Worshippers travelled long distances, many coming from neighbouring India, to attend the controversial ceremony at the in the jungles of Bara district, about 100 miles south of Katmandu. The two-day Gadhimai festival honouring the Hindu goddess of power takes place once every five years in southern Nepal.
A huge cry of “Long Live Gadhimai!” went up after the temple’s head priest launched the event with the sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a rooster, a lamb and a pig.
The crowd then rushed to a nearby field, where 250 sword-wielding butchers began the mass slaughter of around 20,000 buffalo, brought by devotees to be sacrificed near the holy temple.
Animal rights activists have held demonstrations in recent weeks in towns near the Gadhimai temple and in Nepal’s capital Katmandu, protesting against what one Nepalese minister said was the largest animal sacrifice in the world.
Critics say the killings - carried out by slitting the animals’ throats with swords - are barbaric and conducted in a cruel manner.
However, Hindu organisers refused to halt the slaughter, saying it is a centuries-old tradition. Participants believe sacrificing the animals for Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity. The slaughtered animals are taken back by devotees to their villages and eaten during a feast. End of Article.
Here’s what we do.
Image courtesy of Temple Grandin.
There has been criticism of the methods of preparation, herding, and killing within some slaughterhouses, and in particular of the speed with which the slaughter is sometimes conducted. Investigations by animal welfare and animal rights groups have indicated that a proportion of these animals are being skinned or gutted while apparently still alive and conscious.[5] There has also been criticism of the methods of transport of the animals, who are driven for hundreds of miles to slaughterhouses in conditions that often result in crush injuries and death en route. (Wikipedia)
Image Courtesy of animals-in-the-news.blogspot.
200.000 animals slaughtered in Nepal each year in a cruel way (not like dropping pigs into vats of boiling water whilst some are still conscious, that’s not cruel is it?) 200.000 is a large number isn’t it. Did you know over 1 million animals are slaughtered every hour just in the US? 1 million. I wondered how many animals were slaughtered each year worldwide for food we don’t actually need but can’t stop consuming because we are all stupid, ignorant and cruel. I googled it and here is the answer. 140 billion. All that death- Ah, but it’s humane. No, it’s bloody well not. Slaughter rules are often ignored, I will get responses saying that’s not the case but watch the youtube videos, do some reserach, live your life like you have an evolved brain. Even ‘humane slaughter’ is a contradiction. You are KILLING. TAKING A LIFE. AND THEN STUFFING A DEAD CORPSE INTO YOUR MOUTH. Think. Please. Is this really how we want to be?
I wish to finish with an extract from an essay, you can read it in its entirety at http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-aninsidelook.html. Picture also courtesy of this site.
An Inside Look at Slaughter Houses
By Murtle (a school essay)
A wise woman named Linda McCartney once said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone in the world would be a vegetarian”.
This is one of the truest statements ever made. If people thought about or saw what really happens to animals in slaughterhouses for more than a second, it would get to them and they would not be able to bring themselves to still be a carnivore. Those animals endure some of the cruelest treatment and neglect. Also, slaughterhouses are kept in the most unsanitary conditions and violate more laws then almost any other business. The slaughter of animals for human consumption should be banned.
This is Jill Forrest with my pledge to the animals. I will not hurt you, I will not kill you and I will not eat you. I will fight for you. If I lose friends and if I am subject to criticism so be it. I see the face above looking out and I know that this way of life is wrong.
I used to eat meat, wear leather and basically had the same contempt for animals which I see on a daily basis everywhere I look. I became a vegetarian after seeing newborn lambs prancing around and not wanting to be responsible for them being murdered. I became a vegan when I was thinking of breastfeeding my son and finally understood what the dairy industry is all about. What I know now, I did not know then. No longer living in ignorance, I have no option but to write this blog.
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