Di tutti i crimini neri che l'uomo commette contro il Creato, la vivizezione è il più nero. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Factory farms are hellholes worldwide. They are all the same on the four continents, exactly like KFC’s or McDonald’s—if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
More than 200,000 buffaloes, goats, chickens and pigeons were killed over two days at a temple in the Bara district, about 100 miles south of Kathmandu, to honour the Hindu goddess Gadhimai.The bloodbath begun after the chief priest offered panchabali thereby formally inaugurating the festival during which some 300,000 animals and birds were to be slaughtered over two days. It was widely reported that the festival organisers had attempted a world record of 500,000 sacrifices this year. Imagining thousands of headless writhing animals in one place would send shiver down the spine of any person. While many of the men were found to be doing the slaughter for the money, many others were simply killing time. A large crowd had gathered around the site to watch the killings. The scene was like a battlefield because of the screaming of the men. A swordsmen said that they enjoyed the sacrifices. “The more animals I kill, the more satisfied I feel,” Ramlal Mahato said. He added that he has taken to this practice to give continuity to an age-old tradition. According to the campaigners the ‘buffalo carnage’ was a traumatizing event for any sensitive person. Manoj Gautam: ‘Thousands of buffaloes were standing in an enclosure when butchers holding swords started hacking randomly at the animals. Some heads could be severed in one cut; in other cases it took the butchers a long time to kill the buffalo. No one was holding the animals – many tried to escape. Baby buffaloes were bleating and searching for their mothers. Soon they were walking around in a pool of blood. They were hunted down by the butchers. Needless to say, not a single animal survived the blood bath. The animals were forced to witness the killing of countless other animals before their turn came, including the killing of mother animals in front of their siblings.
“The public beheading of some 16.000 water buffaloes ranks ‘among the worst examples of animal cruelty in the world”
Countless children bore witness to the inhumane public sacrifices. This shows that the organizers and the State have violated Nepal’s commitments towards ensuring Child Rights. It is widely known that violence begets more violence. People who commit violence on animals early in their lives are likely to commit violent crimes against other people when they grow up.
An interesting thought : “How many turkeys are being killed for thanksgiving this week all over US and Canada? it´s definitely much more than 200,000, and likely in tens of millions. Yet, if we think about it, aren’t the daily sufferings and killings of thousands of chickens, calves, pigs and cows in the hidden corporate slaughterhouses near our homes as cruel and hence should be condemned with as much vigour? Yes they are! But we don’t. We are used to them. When we buy meat the supermarket we try to ignore the suffering those poor animals went through….. by the millions every single day. It now takes a massacre the magnitude of Gadhimai for the brutality of animal sacrifice to hit home.”
Humane Society International is working with Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre (KAT) and Animal Nepal, to prevent this reckless animal cruelty before the festival takes place November 24 & 25.
Every five years, hundreds of men are licensed to kill buffalo, pigs, chickens, rats, goats, and pigeons, receiving a fee for each animal they take. Cruelly, the animals are chased and hacked to death with knives in a competition to kill as many as possible within two days. According to Animal Welfare Network Nepal, the real beneficiaries are the festival organizers and business community, who drive up prices for animals in the lead up to the festival and then pressure local people to contribute livestock to the event.
Animal advocates are asking that the community provide fruits and vegetables instead of animals for the festival. KAT and Animal Nepal are organizing a counter-campaign of peaceful meditation, and together we are petitioning the government, which has reportedly paid for an enclosure to hold thousands of buffalo ahead of the event, to stop the slaughter.
Ask Nepal to cancel the Gadhimai Jatra festival bloodbath.
**********************************************************************************This is an article written by a witness:
Beastly instincts
JAGDISH AAROHI
“Twenty years ago, I first visited Gadhimai Jatra, a festival that is held every five years in my native Bara district. I was interested in photography and wanted to take some good pictures of Nepal’s indigenous culture. I did not fulfill my mission. Instead, I became a tireless campaigner for the abolishment of animal sacrifice. I was not born a campaigner. I was born in Kalaiya, headquarters of Bara, in a vegetarian, quiet, middle-class farming family. I mainly worked as a farmer but enjoyed doing a little bit of social work in my free time. I never thought I would be the one to carry placards and distribute leaflet to devotees at the world’s largest killing fields of sacrificial beasts.
The first thing I witnessed at Gadhimai was the killing of five different kinds of animals as in panchabali: Buffaloes, goats, pigs, roosters and rats. The animals’ throats are slit with a knife. It is not done quickly. The animals die a slow and extremely cruel, violent death while the priests sprinkle the blood across the image of the deity and its surroundings. Legend has it that the longer it takes for the animal to die, the happier the goddess will be. The whole affair stunned and nauseated me. I never knew that such kind of cruelty existed. But the worst was yet to come. Right after the completion of panchabali sacrifice comes the buffaloes’ turn. Drunken slaughterers—they are made to drink as a sane person cannot do such a task—enter the fenced yard where around 20,000 buffaloes are kept. Wielding swords, axe and khukuris, the men start randomly hacking the buffaloes’ necks. The sword-bearers cannot chop off the buffaloes´ heads at one go because of the thick size of its necks. To make their task easier, the hackers first cut the buffaloes’ hind legs after which the animal falls on the ground. They then start hacking the neck until the head is separated from the body. It takes 20 to 25 swing of the sword to annihilate a big buffalo. The suffering the animals go through is unimaginable. After witnessing the Gadhimai carnage, I started having terrible nightmares. I would see blood wherever I turned to look. After I regained my senses, I vowed to campaign against such killings at all cost. Come what may, I would not give up. True to my vow, I have been campaigning and voluntarily working to improve the conditions of animals for the past 15 years. If the Gadhimai organizers have their way, one can encounter the horrendous scenes on November 24 and 25. This time, the organizers want to set a world record by killing half a million animals. The unfortunate animals will include 20,000 buffaloes, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks and pigeons as well as mice and rats. According to the rules of the Gadhimai festival, all creatures that are brought here must be killed within two days. The last Gadhimai festival held in 2004 saw 20,000 buffaloes sacrificed. Interestingly, the Gadhimai committee keeps the record of the number of sacrificial buffaloes because the devotees have to pay to get their animals beheaded. This year, the committee expects this number to cross the 25,000 mark. The committee, however, does not keep records of other animals or birds because of the sheer overwhelming numbers. No sane person can endure such barbaric killings. But that is not all. Three to four days after the massacre, people start fleeing the Gadhimai venue because of the nauseating smell that starts to emit. Cars, rickshaws and cyclist start taking alternative routes. It is the people living in nearby localities who suffer the most. While the temple area turns into a breeding ground for disease, many fall sick. It takes months for the smell to go away. I think there is hardly any other country that can be compared with Nepal when it comes to gruesome killings and bloodshed of animals. The extreme cruelty has been going on unabated. There are many other smaller-scale festivals like Gadhimai where panchabali and mass sacrifice is practiced. These are not even reported in the media. The government’s apathy towards activists’ repeated pleas to stop animal sacrifice comes at a time when Nepal faces outbreak of diseases like swine and bird flu. Only recently, tens of thousands of chickens and ducks were culled in eastern Nepal because of bird flu. What’s more, Gadhimai’s gathering of over two million people itself can invite looming pandemics. Considering the lack of public health and sanitation facilities at the venue, a national calamity could be imminent. Why is the civil society keeping mum about the issue? Where are the role models who stop animal sacrifice in their own family, clan or neighborhood? Should we let our leaders get away by letting them say: ‘Gadhimai is too sensitive an issue to address’? Animals cannot speak for themselves. Until now, it has been the priests speaking for them: Bring more, kill more animals. Few seem to realize that the Gadhimai organizers plan to raise millions through tenders and beheading fees. Animal sacrifice is a big business. For how long will we remain mute and let this inhuman killings in the name of religion continue?”
