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Newsletter, December 2019
 
"With your help, we made Nepal a kinder place for animals."

In memory of the lives lost in Gadhimai 2019
Blood sacrifice goes ahead at the Gadhimai festival

In 2014, the Supreme Court of Nepal issued a strict mandamus order whereby the government was directed to come up with a strategic action plan to set a timeline for phasing out and ending the practice of animal sacrifice. In July 2015, the President of the Gadhimai Temple Committee went on record to announce the end of animal sacrifice at the five yearly Gadhimai festival and urged devotees not to bring any more animals to the festival. Despite these two landmark achievements, the temple committee went back on their decision and chose to continue the sacrifice in 2019. The committee made the decision to end the sacrifice of pigeons and banned the slaughter of buffalo calves younger than 2 years old. 

This year, the festival took place between 17 November - 11 December, with the main sacrificial date falling on the 3rd of December. In the build up to this, thousands of buffaloes were brought to the temple grounds and kept inside a walled stadium. Despite the ban on the slaughter of calves, most of the buffaloes brought in were young calves. 

At midnight on 3rd December, the temple priests marked the start of the sacrificial offering by completing the Panchabali ritual, whereby they slaughter 5 animals (He-goat, she-goat, duck, pig and rat). By 7.30 in the morning, large crowds had gathered outside the stadium, scrambling over one another to watch the slaughter of the buffaloes by large sword yielding butchers, some of whom were teenage boys. By 9 am, all the buffaloes inside the stadium had been killed but some latecomers were still dragging a few calves to the stadium and pleading with the butchers to slaughter them.

The stadium is heavily protected by Armed Police and barbed wire walls with limited access. But by 9 am, the entire area around the temple turns into a mass killing field. Everywhere you look, you see groups of sword yielding men and innocent animals, unbeknownst to them, being led by children to their slaughter. Roadsides, crop fields, river banks, temple grounds are covered with blood. 

According to the temple committee, the number of buffaloes slaughtered this year was 7500. But unlike the buffaloes, it is impossible to keep count of the number of small animals slaughtered, as these are not regulated in any way. There are no allocated spaces for the slaughter. Everywhere you look, an innocent animal is butchered. Seeing the sheer volume of death, it can be estimated that hundreds of thousands of animals lost their lives on that day. 

It was a heavy defeat. A defeat for every single animal that perished. A defeat for all the people who fought so hard to save them. We returned with our hearts and spirits broken but also with a stronger determination to continue fighting. Until animals continue to suffer for mankind's selfish desires, the fight to save them must continue.  


Watch Animal Nepal's campaign video here:
Ahimsa paramo dharma - non violence is the ultimate duty

 

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