Tens of thousands of goats, buffaloes, chickens and ducks are sacrificed to please the gods and goddesses as part of a practice that dates back centuries.
BINAJ GURUBACHARYA: ‘During the 15-day Dashain festival that began this week in the Himalayan country, families fly kites, host feasts and visit temples, where tens of thousands of goats, buffaloes, chickens and ducks are sacrificed to please the gods and goddesses as part of a practice that dates back centuries. Animal rights groups are hoping to stop —or at least reduce— the slaughter, using this year’s campaign as a practice run to combat a much larger animal sacrifice set for next year at the quinquennial Gadhimai festival…
Activists first organized after the Gadhimai festival in 2009, when an estimated 250,000 animals were killed at a single temple in southern Nepal. Images of carcasses piled up on an open field were widely published and broadcast. Though there are no official data, fewer animals were believed to have been sacrificed at the subsequent Gadhimai festival in 2014, according to rights group Animal Nepal.
The number of buffalo sacrifices alone dropped from 20,000 in 2009 to 3,000 in 2014, said campaigner Pramada Shah. “We are very few campaigners but we have a very loud voice. We are a loud minority,” Shah said… They are hanging banners and distributing pamphlets denouncing the practice and speaking to devotees, hoping to persuade them to take the animals they’ve purchased for sacrifice to animal sanctuaries instead’. SOURCE…
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