POV: Nepal's Gadhimai Mela: Atrocity?

Tales of Inhuman Cruelty Dog World’s Largest Killing Fair

Kathmandu, Nov 26 – Tales of immense cruelty and imperviousness to suffering began to surface Thursday after the ritual slaughter of thousands of animals and birds at the world’s largest killing fair ended in Nepal’s Terai plains with animal rights activists condemning it as legitimisation of violence.

Hundreds of carcasses of butchered water buffaloes, goats and other animals lay strewn near the temple of Hindu goddess Gadhimai in Bara district with rivers of blood flowing since Tuesday, when the massacres started.

Dalits from India and Nepal — a community that stands at the bottom of traditional Hindu hierarchy and is still regarded as untouchables — flocked to the charnel house to collect the carcasses and clashed with the contractors who had paid the temple authorities to carry away the meat by the truckload.

At the end of the two-day massacre, the mounds of bodies proved too huge for both sides and bulldozers were called in to dig deep pits and bury the remaining carcasses.

The stench arising from the dead animals as well as from the human excreta left by the millions of pilgrims filled the area.

Nepali daily Naya Patrika said Thursday that about 150 visitors to the five-yearly fair had fainted at the sight of the blood and violence.

Manoj Gautam, member of a youth initiative Roots and Shoots, which had been campaigning for the prevention of the slaughter, painted a picture of unbearable cruelty and suffering.

‘The animals were not provided with any water and food in the days before the sacrifice,’ Gautam said. ‘Many young animals had in fact already died from stress, exhaustion and dehydration before the killings started.’

The butchering was carried out randomly in a radius of 3 km around the temple.

‘Anyone could kill anything, with whatever — knife or sword,’ he said. ‘Many animals died an unbearable slow and violent death because the butcher was inexperienced and the knives were not sharpened properly.’

Thousands of buffaloes were standing in an enclosure when butchers holding swords started hacking randomly at them. While some heads could be severed in one cut, in other cases it took the butchers a long time to kill the buffalo.

Many tried to escape but were hunted down.

‘Baby buffaloes were bleating and searching for their mothers,’ a shocked Gautam said. ‘Soon they were walking around in a pool of blood. Not a single animal survived the blood bath.’

Two Nepal organisations that spearheaded the campaign to stop the massacre — Animal Welfare Network Nepal and Anti-Animal Sacrifice Alliance — said while the Gadhimai Fair is being promoted as a cultural event, it actually legitimises violence against the innocent.

‘The priests make the devotees believe that their wish will come true only when offering an expensive buffalo, goat or other kind of animal,’ the two organisations said in a joint statement. ‘The Maoist-led organising committee, instead of abolishing these outdated beliefs, promotes them to collect more revenues and increase the vote bank.’

They also blamed the coalition government of Nepal for the wanton killings that have shocked the outside world with condemnations pouring in till Thursday.

‘Not a single government leader has had the courage to speak out against the mass sacrifices,’ the two organisations said. ‘What kind of leader in this time and age wants to perpetuate rituals that perpetuate superstition, drain the resources of the poor and destroy the image of Nepal as an attractive destination?’

source : http://www.vamban.com/tales-of-inhuman-cruelty-dog-worlds-largest-killing-fair/

Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins

Cheers and protests as thousands of buffalo are decapitated at start of festival in Nepal honouring Hindu goddess Gadhimai

But then, while not condoning the cruelty to animals, it is probably fair to say that most, if not all, of meat of slaughtered animals will be consumed, hence, the circle of life.

One can argue that more animals are killed for pleasure -hunting - here in the West.  But still the image of animals being slaughtered left and right with little regard to their pain and anxiety does not sit well.

I am a meat eater, so some can say that I indirectly support this kind of human behaviour.  That could be true.  I don't know.

We must take this into perspective. Ofcourse activities of poorer people look gross than those of the rich because the rich have resources to do things more cleanly.

However  let's even consider Thanksgiving. Wall Street Journal  estimates 46,000,000 turkeys are consumed by Christians in Thanksgiving compared to the 20,000 bulls killed during this Gadimai Mela.

'Mysansar' has the data as 20,000 bulls which seems more correct than the astronomical amount that is quoted by 'daum'-who started this thread. In the end it seems 'daum' is more interested in spreading christinity than stopping any ills. One example is that he shows the inflated number in numerals as 200,000 while he hides the number of turkeys kills as 48 million. While this may be subconscious on this part let the reader compare apples to apples.

Here goes the picture.

Gadhimai is total atrocity. It was justified in the past, but not in present context. It is a disaster in every sense: we look stupid in front of international perspective. Reported in wsj, nytimes, boston globe, etc. International Animal rights group will probably list our country as one of the worst offender. Some may it dont matter, but it does. Their media campaign hurt Nepal immensely to promote tourism. Then there is issue of health. God knows what this wrath will bring in Nepal.

May our All our Bad Lucks have something to do with Practise of Killing like this in the name of God.

Well said Bob. Like saying "You are what you eat.", it fits well like "We are how we are Think and Act." Can you imagine 150 plus people fainted during the festival just seeing animals slaughtered. It is time for people to come out and realize we need to go beyond. Public slaughtering should be banned constitutionally just like in India. No wonder 75 percent of the visitors are from India.

I hope this was a last Gadhimal festival of open killing or I hope next will be clean and humanely managed ceremony where people can be pride of their tradition discontinuing killings.