Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins

[DAVIDE]

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
Gallery: Hindu sacrifice ceremony starts


The world's biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.
The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.
With up to a million worshippers on the roads near the festival grounds, this year's fair seems more popular than ever, despite vocal protests from animals rights groups who have called for it to be banned. "It is the traditional way, " explained 45-year old Manoj Shah, a Nepali driver who has been attending the event since he was six, "If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled." .
Crowds thronged the roads and camped out in the open, wrapped in blankets against the cool mist. The festivities included a ferris wheel, fortune-telling robots and stalls broadcasting music and offering tea and sugary snacks.
As dawn broke, the fair officially opened with the sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a pig, a lamb and a rooster in the main temple, to cheers of "Long live Gadhimai" from spectators pushing against each other for a better view.
In the main event, 250 appointed residents with traditional kukri knives began their task of decapitating more than 10,000 buffalo in a dusty enclosure guarded by high walls and armed police.
Frightened calves galloped around in vain as the men, wearing red bandanas and armbands, pursued them and chopped off their heads. Banned from entering the animal pen, hundreds of visitors scrambled up the three-metre walls to catch a glimpse of the carnage.
The dead beasts will be sold to companies who will profit from the sale of the meat, bones and hide. Organisers will funnel the proceeds into development of the area, including the temple upkeep.
On the eve of the event, protesters made a final plea to organisers by cracking open coconuts in a nearby temple as a symbolic sacrifice. "It is cruel and inhumane. We've always been a superstitious country, but I don't think sacrifice has to be part of the Hindu religion," said the protest organiser, Pramada Shah.
The campaign has the support of the French actor Brigitte Bardot, who has petitioned the Nepalese prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, about the issue. But the government, which donated £36,500 to the event, has shown no sign of discontinuing the centuries-old tradition. An attempt by the previous government to cut the budget for animal sacrifice provoked street protests.
Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festival's high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. "The goddess needs blood," he said. "Then that person can make his wishes come true."


source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...festival-nepal

Now, is all this really necessary?

[removeduser_487563287433]

Who cares. I imagine that amount are slaughtered every hour.

[Simon Cashmere]

Who cares. I imagine that amount are slaughtered every hour.

Yeah how many die to make Big Macs and Whoppers? More than 250k I bet.

[pochi33]

Yeah how many die to make Big Macs and Whoppers? More than 250k I bet.

LOL

Unfortunately, is their tradition, and we can do nothing to stop it...

[DAVIDE]

LOL

Unfortunately, is their tradition, and we can do nothing to stop it...

Well, there's no religion around who predicts so explicitely mass sacrifice of animals. About this fest, there are Hinduist monks (as Bhante Satyabrata) who say their religion never talked about these kind of rituals

[motiv-8]

Who cares. I imagine that amount are slaughtered every hour.

The largest pig processing plant in the world is about an hour from where I grew up... 32,000 pigs a day. OBESITY, yeaa!

At least they aint doing like the Abrahamic and hanging the animals to die slowly, along with a few rape victims and small children on the side.

.... Whaaaaat...? Why do people around here say such utterly bizarre things like it's a casual observation?

[Sir Winston Churchill]

.... Whaaaaat...? Why do people around here say such utterly bizarre things like it's a casual observation?

Because we have no way to know who they really are in real life.

[DAVIDE]

In a week they kill more than 2 million animals! Just for nothing. For religious purposes.

[removeduser_487563287433]

In a week they kill more than 2 million animals! Just for nothing. For religious purposes.

Oh well, at least they're not raping children and covering it up.

[Maverick]

Oh well, at least they're not raping children and covering it up.

No, they're not covering it up.

"Let the man of thirty years wed a ten-year-old wife, or let the man of twenty-one get one seven years old." -Mahabharata

"For a girl to be a virgin at ten years old, she must have neither brothers nor cousins nor father." -Indian proverb

[removeduser_487563287433]

No, they're not covering it up.

"Let the man of thirty years wed a ten-year-old wife, or let the man of twenty-one get one seven years old." -Mahabharata

"For a girl to be a virgin at ten years old, she must have neither brothers nor cousins nor father." -Indian proverb

Oh come on I can quote the Bible about enslaving women and selling your daughter and so on and so forth.

[Maverick]

Oh come on I can quote the Bible about enslaving women and selling your daughter and so on and so forth.

Speaking of enslaving women and selling your daughter, in what culture is forced marriage a common practice again?

[Seleucos of Olympia]

In a week they kill more than 2 million animals! Just for nothing. For religious purposes.

People are going to eat those animals. The only kinds of animal sacrifice that don't feed people are holocausts, and they are rather rare in religious history (the only ones I can think of are the ones the Hebrews offered to their god).

[Ishoss]

In a week they kill more than 2 million animals! Just for nothing. For religious purposes.

It's their religion, it's their culture.

We should just destroy all ruins around the world, takes up valuable real-estate...

[Yosemite]

In a week they kill more than 2 million animals! Just for nothing. For religious purposes.

no, they will eat the meat, use the hides and the bones

Well, there's no religion around who predicts so explicitely mass sacrifice of animals. About this fest, there are Hinduist monks (as Bhante Satyabrata) who say their religion never talked about these kind of rituals

why is it bad to kill an animal for it's benefits in the religious way

No, but they are mass murdering animals, which is cruel as raping a kid. It's a disgusting thing anyway! And they slaughter animals for what? preying their god with the hope he will give them prosperity! it's insane

comparing animals to children is worse

Why not? What is an animal for us? A being who cant speak our language or any language on earth, a being we use to feed us because his meat is tasty. But at this point, what's the difference between human being and animal? As paradox we could take an animal with an Esquimo to make a comparison. Esquimo speak a language nobody understands apart the same Esquimos. So does the animals between them. Esquimos hunts for feeding. So does the animals. Even human meat is eatable, in the same way of the animal one. So what make us different from an animal? the brain functions. Animals doesnt have rights because they have no ways to claim them. But if we take a third world person who lives in the middle of nowhere in Africa, a person who has the same rights of an animal, we could sacrifice it too at this point.

animals didn't build my house or my computer or my internet

animals don't pay for my electricity bills

why are you comparing animals to humans

Many civilizations around the world gave more value to animals than human beings. I dont see anything racist in this

so praising an animal as something greater than a human being is fine, but killing it for the meat is bad


I believe they will have a good time, eating good meat, doing what they did for so long. You can question the necessity of the rituals, but in the end they will fill stomach with delicious tasty meat.

[ShADoW]

Theres a thread on this already.

[DAVIDE]

No, but they are mass murdering animals, which is cruel as raping a kid. It's a disgusting thing anyway! And they slaughter animals for what? preying their god with the hope he will give them prosperity! it's insane

[Nevins]

No, but they are mass murdering animals, which is cruel as raping a kid. It's a disgusting thing anyway! And they slaughter animals for what? preying their god with the hope he will give them prosperity! it's insane

Did you really just imply that pedophilic rape was on the same level as the slaughter of animals for a religious function? I mean, I would understand that you are opposed to such an idea but that seems like a bit of a stretch.

[DAVIDE]

Did you really just imply that pedophilic rape was on the same level as the slaughter of animals for a religious function? I mean, I would understand that you are opposed to such an idea but that seems like a bit of a stretch.

Why not? What is an animal for us? A being who cant speak our language or any language on earth, a being we use to feed us because his meat is tasty. But at this point, what's the difference between human being and animal? As paradox we could take an animal with an Esquimo to make a comparison. Esquimo speak a language nobody understands apart the same Esquimos. So does the animals between them. Esquimos hunts for feeding. So does the animals. Even human meat is eatable, in the same way of the animal one. So what make us different from an animal? the brain functions. Animals doesnt have rights because they have no ways to claim them. But if we take a third world person who lives in the middle of nowhere in Africa, a person who has the same rights of an animal, we could sacrifice it too at this point.

[Rapax]

Why not? What is an animal for us? A being who cant speak our language or any language on earth, a being we use to feed us because his meat is tasty. But at this point, what's the difference between human being and animal? As paradox we could take an animal with an Esquimo to make a comparison. Esquimo speak a language nobody understands apart the same Esquimos. So does the animals between them. Esquimos hunts for feeding. So does the animals. Even human meat is eatable, in the same way of the animal one. So what make us different from an animal? the brain functions. Animals doesnt have rights because they have no ways to claim them. But if we take a third world person who lives in the middle of nowhere in Africa, a person who has the same rights of an animal, we could sacrifice it too at this point.

It's called the food chain. We're on top of it. It's not a difficult concept.

What I don't understand is why you still feign outrage over this while conveniently ignoring every comment on how we are slaughtering millions of animals each year for our consumption. That doesn't matter to you but "oh the damn Hindu" ?