Quarter Of A Million Cries Unheard – Never Again In Nepal

From Kinship Circle

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Please make the Gadhimai animal-free in 2014

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WHEN BABIES WEEP: NEPAL’s FESTIVAL OF BLOOD

November 24-25, 2010, was the one-year anniversary of the world’s largest animal sacrifice. The magnitude of violence in the Gadhimai Festival is daunting.

Last year, some 250,000 water buffalo, pigs, goats … and other animals were slowly dismembered by a frenzied crowd wielding butcher knives and swords. Heads were severed and throats slit to commemorate the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai, who apparently requires a sea of blood before she’ll fulfill the wishes of her human disciples. The two-day sacrifice occurs in Nepal’s Gadhimai area, at the village of Bariyapur in the Bara District. In 2009 five million visitors were present.

This ancient ritual repeats itself every 5 years. In 2014 hundreds of thousands of live animals will be gored again. United voices worldwide want to shut down the Gadhimai. The time to protest is now. Again and again … until the 2014 festival is canceled or replaced with nonviolent symbolism.

WITNESSES | GADHIMAI FESTIVAL 2009

Manoj Gautam, Roots and Shoots Nepal:

Baby buffaloes were bleating for their mothers. Not a single animal survived the bloodbath.

Bibi Funyal, photographer (assigned to festival):

It took them a long time to sever heads. Buffaloes were mooing, a terrible sound. I stepped over thousands of bodies and heads, wading through animal blood. It was something I will never do again, even if they offer me an award.

Krishna Singh, Program Manager, Animal Nepal:

Before the killing a baby goat died from lack of food and water. Scared baby buffaloes wanted to be petted. They needed comfort.

Lesser graphic footage | If you wish to view the unedited, extremely graphic version, click HERE

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MESSAGE TEXT

In 2014, officials will permit the most violent animal sacrifice in the world to repeat itself. I implore Nepal’s government to ban mass slaughter in the Gadhimai Festival 2014.

In 2009 some 250,000 water buffalo, pigs, goats, pigeons, ducks, and other animals were hacked apart by a frenzied crowd wielding knives and swords. The media showed severed heads, slit throats, and dazed or dead animals in fields of blood. Disciples of the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai, think their wishes will be granted if they give her massacred animals. People are free to cling to ancient superstitions, no matter how foolish they seem in the 21st Century. However, the brutalization of hundreds of thousands of animals is unacceptable in any culture, at any time.

The Gadhimai alienates potential tourists like myself, who object to animal cruelty. Furthermore, it desensitizes the people of Nepal, particularly children, to violence and agony.

I am not against the event itself, but rather, its use of animals. A more tourist-friendly version could use red objects such as cloth, flowers, fruit, banners, candles, flags…to symbolize live offerings. A bloodless Gadhimai would still be a grand spectacle — with worshippers walking for miles to reach a temple adorned in red emblems of their faith — but without dragging along animals to butcher.

Please outlaw animal sacrifice. I urge the Nepalese government to legally shield animals from all forms of abuse, including grotesque rituals such as the Gadhimai Festival.

Thank you,

Previous action with different alerts, letter:

Please protest massive, ritualistic animal torture in Nepal: two petitions, one sample letter

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See More … Animal Wrongs

Please do not forget to click on and send the following automated message:

Please make the Gadhimai animal-free in 2014

Thank you.

there is no way to justify
these pools of blood
the animals frightened cries
this type of barbarity
so cruel and obscene
must never again
be heard or seen
just relegated to history’s
hall of shame
nepal this is your chance
to clear your name

Karen Lyons Kalmenson