Animal rights protesters in Nepal seek to stop

Gadhimai festival sacrifice

Mass slaughter of buffaloes, sheep and goats in name of Hindu goddess Gadhimai to take
place in Bariryapur

November 2009,
Bariyapur: a Nepalese Hindu devotee slaughters a buffalo as an offering to the
goddess Gadhimai. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images
Jon Boone in Islamabad-Wednesday 26 November 2014
Animal rights protesters in Nepal are making last-ditch efforts to disrupt the sacrifice of
hundreds of thousands of animals including buffaloes, sheep and goats in the name of
a Hindu goddess on Friday.
Every five years, pilgrims flock to the temple of the goddess Gadhimai in the small
Nepalese border town of Bariyarpur to behead vast quantities of livestock over two
days, creating scenes of carnage that revolt opponents of the practice.
In 2009, an estimated 250,000 animals were killed by men wielding traditional curved
kukri knives during an event which attracted up to a million worshippers to the town 60
miles from Kathmandu.
Campaigners have attempted to frustrate the event or at least greatly reduce the
number of animals killed. They say it is cruel because the animals suffer at the hands
of untrained butchers, and that the piles of carcasses are a health hazard. Some
argue that the event traumatises children. The sights and sounds are
unimaginable, wrote Jayasimha Nuggehalli, director of the Indian branch of the
Humane Society International. Pools of blood, animals bellowing in pain and panic,
wide-eyed children looking on, devotees covered in animal blood, and some people
even drinking blood from the headless but still warm carcasses.
Huge numbers of worshippers from Indian states where animal sacrifice is banned

have already streamed across the border for the festival, which runs for weeks, even
though the animal slaughter will take place on Friday and Saturday.
In September, the government of India ordered areas bordering Nepal to ban all
animal exports to the neighbouring country throughout November. Indian activists
have been patrolling the border to try to prevent the illegal export of livestock into
Nepal, although only a few hundred have been seized.
Swami Agnivish, a well-known Indian politician and social activist, denounced animal
sacrifice as heinous and diabolical.

Buffaloes in a holding pit

before being slaughtered in the 2009 sacrifice. Photograph: Prakash
Mathema/AFP/Getty Images
Campaigners claim the spread via social media of gory photos and videos of the 2009
event is eroding support inside Nepal.
We are working on the ground trying to convince people that killing is inhumane no
matter if it is in the name of god, said Shristi Singh Shrestha, an activist in Nepal
trying to convince those involved to become vegetarians. Umish Mainali, former head
of Nepals ministry of home affairs, said people should be encouraged to sacrifice
coconuts instead of animals.
But the event remains hugely popular in a traditional society where many believe a
sacrifice to Gadhimai, also known as the goddess of power, will bring them prosperity
and that eating the meat of ritually slaughtered animals will protect them from evil.
On Wednesday, as thousands of pilgrims flocked to the town with their sacrificial
animals, Mangal Chaudhary, the Gadhimai temples high priest, said the world had to
respect the traditional culture.Its the centre of our faith that Gadhimai is known for
sacrifice of animals, he said. It is our tradition, so it will continue.
Organisers have tried to deflect criticism that the mass killing in unsanitary conditions
is unhygienic and could trigger an outbreak of anthrax. Ram Chandra Shah, chairman

of Gadhimai Temple development committee, said government officials would be on

hand to monitor the animals and check for disease.
The campaign against the killings has attracted foreign celebrity endorsement,
including from actors Brigitte Bardot and Joanna Lumley.
But fefenders of the festival say foreign critics are guilty of double standards. Only a
vegetarian has the moral high ground to condemn the killings of any animal for
religion, sport or food, wrote journalist Deepak Adhikari in a recent article defending
the festival. For armchair western activists and local collaborators, the sacrifices
represent their own festival of righteous indignation.
Posted by Thavam