There has been an increasing hue and cry over the upcoming Gadhimai festival in Nepal where hundreds of thousands of animals are sacrificed every 5 years. There have been numerous petitions to stop this mass killing and even international organizations are getting involved in asking the Nepal government to stop this festival.

At a cursory glance, it seems like a normal compassionate thing to do, i.e. to deplore such mass killings of animals. But if you really start looking at the bigger picture, there are other statistics which might be even more shocking.

It is indicated in the petitition that over 200,000 animals get killed during this festival. This number looks big but when you look at the number of animals killed in the US for food, that number is even overwhelming. In the year 2000, 9.7 billion animals were killed for food. Which roughly comes to about 2.6 million animals a day in the US alone.

We are happy to enjoy the plate of momo in our plate. We enjoy steak, burgers, chicken curry, goat meat and all other non veg delicacies at every chance we get. We know where the meat is coming from but we want to ignore the reality and focus on the food only. If we really care about the killing of animals, then all of us should stop eating meat. We should petition for the governments to ban meat.

Why is there a huge outcry when 200,000 animals are killed in the Hindu ceremonial sacrifices, when in the US alone over 2,600,000 animals are killed everyday. What makes it ok for the 2.6 million animals that gets slaughtered every day in the US, but not ok for 200,000 animals to be killed in Nepal?

Please sign my petition. "Stop the hypocrisy of dehumanizing animal slaughters, until people stop eating meat altogether."

I would encourage you to find the answer in your phrase "ceremonial sacrifices".

Altljdgoede, sacrifice does not mean you throw away the animal meat. The point is, the sacrifices are made for meat.

"meat"..right. So why the hypocrisy of calling it something else? If for meat, then those animals should be taken clean slaughterhouse and prepared that way. The stats about the american animals is not really apple to apple comparison because these animals are not being slaughtered in or around church.

It is very twisted to make it look like God really needs to see this in the temple periphery. Not the Hinduism itself, but the power players of Hinduism have made the religion very convoluted. And we, as a 'educated' crowd, don't have to stretch too much to justify those wrongs.

हेर्ने आखामा भर पर्छ यो तान्डब लिला हो वा सामाजिक संस्कारको एक अन्स | पस्चिमेलिले आफ्नो बिकास संगै अरु छेत्रमा पनि सुधार गरे | उनीहरु रेटेर जनावर मार्थे , ब्यबसायिक तवरमा मात्र भएर बिसेस स्लाटर हाउसको बिकास भयो ( एउटा महिलाले येस बिसयमा अनुसन्धान गरि सहज र सरल उपाय निकालिन ) | हामि हरुले जहिले पनि एक च टमा गिडिएन भने भगवान रिसाउछन भनि बिङ्गो थापे , जुन हजारौ बर्स देखि चलि आएको छ |

मासु महगो अनि उत्क्रिस्ट भोजनमा पर्ने भएकोले पुराना जमानामा कमै खाने चलन थियो : हुन् सक्छ मासु खाने बहानाको लागि भाकल गर्ने चलन चलेको पनि हुन् सक्छ | यो भाकल गर्ने समय सबैको एकै चोटी भएकोले अनि त्यो पनि पाच बर्समा एक पल्ट आउने भएकोले हजारौ को सख्यामा देखिएको हो | भाकल्कै कुरा गर्ने हो भने इतिहासमा अरुधर्मका जाति हरुले मानिसकै बलि दिने कुरा पढिएको थियो : हामीले त जनावर मात्रै बाट सुरु गर्योउ | ३० /४० बर्स अघि कति थियो अनि कुन जाति बढी थिए त्यो तिर कसैले ध्यान दिएको छ ? आजभोलि छेत्री बाहुन हरुको सख्या बढेको कारणले यो बलिको सख्या बढेको हो : आज भोलि नेपाल र नेपालि मात्र हैन भारताबर्ष बात पनि थपिन थालेको कारणले बलिको संख्या गणितिय तवरमा बढेको हो |

मानिसको सोचमा बिकास भए पछि पुराना अन्ध बिस्वास अनि कुचलन - कुप्रथा बिस्तारै हट्दै जानु जान्छ र जानु पर्ने हो तर जनसंख्या बढे अनुसार भाकल गर्ने र बलि चडिने जनावर हरुको संख्या बढेको कुरालाई मिडियाले लुकाएको छ | के धर्मालम्बी को संख्या बढेको हो वा मानिसका कमि वा कमजोरी हटोस् भनि आत्म संतोसीको बाटो अंगालेको हो |
मेरो बिचारमा बिसौ हजार निरिह मानव जतिको निरिह हत्याको अगाडी यो पिता पुर्खाको पाला देखि चलेको सामान्य कुरा हो | कि त साकाहारी हो वा बुद्धको नियम पालन गर : नत्र जनावर नकाटी मासु आउदैन | यो ळब्षटर लाइ तातो पानीमा हालेर पकाउने कुरा यो मिडियाले कति Expose gareko  छ : त्यो पनि यो बिसयमा सामेल हुनु जरुरि छ जस्तो लाग्छ मलाइ ?

Rethink,

If you want to support the festival you can. You can even take a goat to the festival to be sacrificed yourself.

It is all about how the animals will get killed. There is no proper way of take a living being's life, but the least one could do is not make a spectacle out of it. This festival will be a blood bath with fields drenched in blood, with a large group of spectators and an open field butcher house. This tradition has to stop.
There is another equally worse tradition in Nepal of throwing a live goat in a pond with people snatching whatever they can get of the animal. Imagine for once the gruesome death of the poor goat.

Gorkhey, wait a second, GAdhimai mela ma sacrifice garne mostly terai basi ra tharu haru hun. Do not drag Chhetri bahun here.

In a similar note: Nepal ma jasle gadhimai mela ko dherai birodh gardaichhan uniharu gai marera khana paunu parchha bhandai ufrine haru madhyeka hun.

I personally believe Gadhimai ko sacrifice minimize garnu parchha; I am a hardcore hindu though.

Someone had said" The more I see humans, the more I love animals."

Thank Nas: Adding the pic of Halal. On those halal meat you can see shaking/twitching  piece of meat even after hours of dead.   We practiced the best of the best slaughtering method as I mentioned in my earlier post. 

Please sign my petition. "Stop the hypocrisy of dehumanizing animal slaughters, until people stop eating meat altogether."
I am with you in the slaughter part. Not the eating meat part. I mean what are we supposed to eat then ? I am sure you would say vegetables. But plants are beings too.

I do not think there is any nice or good way to kill. A kill is a kill and if you eat meat, you don't have a right to ask that animal get killed in a nicer way.

When you kill a human being, no matter if you killed nicely or not so nicely, it is murder. A murder is a murder.

I am not trying to argue whether eating meat is good or not. I am trying to point out the hypocrisy of people who speak against killing of animals but eat meat.

With all these pictures, are you trying to prove that the Jews and the Muslims are equally bad as the Hindus?
The point is these pictures do not make the Hindus any better. Halal style seems to be even more horrific. (By the way, it appears more and more like I happen to be either an atheist or a believer with no diety.)

Along the same line, I had a teacher who taught Nepali and was quite obviously was a Bahun. I remember very vividly, he hated the भाकल गर्ने प्रथा in Hinduism and I can relate to that.

After all these bloodshed if all these animal tissues are utilized for human consumption ( "with no meat or blood wasted" being the catch) and the non-consumable animal parts used for industrial purposes, there is a solace to the whole "dehumanizing" term being passed around. But a slaughter house is still the best solution for hygienic harvesting of animal meat. Then, in that case, why not build Hindu temples next to slaughter houses or vice-versa? At the same time, why not simulate religious sacrificing of the wretched animals in a swifter and less painful manner?

I will leave you with this thought by the Buddha ( who was born in Nepal and not in India and yet we turn a blind eye to his teachings).

    Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it.
    Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
    Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many.
    Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books.
    Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
    But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.

Gautama Buddha, Kalama Sutta

A kill is not a kill. The end is the same, but the means can be different. A murder in a passionate crime is not punished as severly as in a pre-meditate murder. A death by a gun-shot is not same as the death by public stoning or by public hanging or by public lynching.

All the people who are making it such a big deal in Nepal are mostly anti-Hindus and anti-bahun/chhetry. They are also the one who are petitioning to make cow slaughter legal in Nepal.

But you also have to accept the fact that mass slaughter in the name of sacrifice is immoral as well. But yes, as you pointed out, if you take statistics into account, Gadhimai is not the only event where animals are killed in mass, be it in the name of god or otherwise. I don't know what is more bad; protesting against Gadhimai festival or going into a cafe to eat a plate of momo afterwards. Take about hypocrisy and hatred.

To the guy who replied, "I would encourage you to find the answer in your phrase "ceremonial sacrifices"".

Well, ceremonial or otherwise, slaughter is slaughter. And please tell me how is it different from what's happening all over the world, apart from "ceremonial sacrifices", because that doesn't hold water here. 

But apart from that, animal cruelty needs to end, not just in Hindu religions ceremony, but all over the world, including KFCs, McDonalds, in the UK, the US, in Eid or wherever. It's just another attempt to demoralise Hindu religion. If it can be guaranteed that the animals were slaughtered in the most humane condition, it should not matter at all because I don't think you people would stop eating meat altogether.

लौ अर्को धर्मरक्षक तोरिलाउरे आयो फेरि

बाबु भनाइको अर्थ के हो भने, 'हर सक्रान्ति चाड तिथि मा नुहाए पाप पखालिन्छ' भने जस्तै हो. त्यति बेला health र sanitation को कुरा गरेर मान्छे ले बुझ्ने बेला थिएन तेसैले धर्म को कुरा गर्यों सबैले खुरुखुरु गर्थे.

Now things have changed. Society has been much more sophisticated. Therefore, tell it like it is. We can handle the truth of eating meat as a food. Don't bring the bullshit of 'to make the god' happy. It is just to make your ass happy. No one else.

If you are someone who cannot imagine breaking away from those primitive instructions, then I have nothing to say. Otherwise until we call the slaughters for food purpose, we can by no means fix any issues that may exists like cleanliness, cruelty etc.

कतिपय मन्दिर हरुमा दिईने बलि, बिशेष गरि जो जाडो समयमा पर्दैन, झिंगा ले छोपेको मासु देखेका छौ?

Don't bring the bullshit of 'to make the god' happy. It is just to make your ass happy. No one else.

Well said metta. I second that..

very sad to see the continuation of this barbaric tradition!