World's biggest animal sacrifice begins in Nepal

Source: Russian Information Agency Novosti

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered in southern Nepal for a notorious ritual slaughter of animals and birds, Times of India reported on Tuesday.

The ritual known as the largest sacrificial slaughter of animals in the world sparked protests by animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot, and livestock experts. The experts warn that the massacre could cause an outbreak of such diseases like goat plague, swine flu and bird flu.

However, Nepal's government refused to ban the massacre calling it a centuries-old tradition.

The local Maoist MP, Shiv Chandra Kushwaha told Times of India, "We can't stop them because it is a religious sentiment."

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20091124/156971937.html

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The Guardian: Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins



I didn't know that animal slaughter, on this scale, occurred anywhere in the name of religion, let alone Hinduism, which I associate with a reverence for the natural world. The pictures look more like ancient Rome.

No? Uh-oh.

Given your name, I'd have thought you to be more familiar with practices of the Hindu faith. Hmm...

choke. Just like there were in the last 5,10,20 years right.

They do this every 5 years over there and you do it every year over here, so what's your point? Remember Thanksgiving is only a day away, how many turkeys have been killed to meet the demand for turkey on every Thanksgiving table over here... How many, I am just saying...

for the thrill and entertainment of men, women and children.

Blood lust IS human nature, albeit inhibited by culture. The"Goddess wants blood" and the people love to see it fly.

Are you having trouble typing a new post? Let me know. I'll see if I can help you. Welcome to DU.

that he had been coming to these slaughters since he was 9-years old. Then he went on to say that the reason for the slaughter was - just as you stated - "within five years, all our dreams will come true."

So here I am, thinking, dude, so why are you here again if all your dreams were fulfilled 5 years ago? 10 years ago? and so on?

It's just plain stupid and the poverty that so many Hindus live in illustrates that this "sacrifice" lands on deaf ears. There is NO HINDU god.

of these sacrificial animals. That is their lot, according to Hindu tradition. The meat and leather will be sold to those who do not eschew eating meat

Here in the United states, we have removed religion from our slaughter of animals, so it might seem less primitive. And yet, we kill millions of them for the table. As a carnivorous human, I partake of the sacrificial animals, glad that religion is no longer attached to the sacrifice.

Now, let's have the horrified folks tell us what the difference is between what happened there and what happens here. I'll be very interested.

I must add that Kosher meat is still killed per religion in this country.

Eh, whatever floats your boat. Not my animals.

whatever the side benefits.

To some this is an 'offering', which takes a whole different meaning. Not my cup of tea, but I can at least understand what they are getting at.

On an intellectual level, I think it's just as pointless as eating the zombie jesus meat at communion.

and the crowds want to see it.

:hide:

I'm not horrified, but the difference is we know that we get the vitamins and proteins and whatnot from eating meat that our bodies need to work properly.....and if one doesn't eat meat they (should) know they must get those things meat offers to our survival from elsewhere. We don't expect any magic from the slaughter.... only necessity. We are not using religion to fool people that the act will accomplish anything other than nutritional needs. My horror rises at the foolishness of the fake reasons for religious slaughter.

They do this every 5 years over there and you do it every year over here, so what's your point? Remember Thanksgiving is only a day away, how many turkeys have been killed to meet the demand for turkey on every Thanksgiving table over here... How many, I am just saying...

The unwanted cats and dogs that are gassed at our animal shelters. :cry:

Go to any abbattoir or slaughterhouse and you'll see this mass killing happening on a daily basis, not just once every 5 years.

What seems to offend people is that this is done out in the open, and as some form of religious ceremony; which somehow makes it so much more barbaric and primitive than what we in "civilised" countries do - out of public view so the general population can remain in denial of the truth about what they are eating and how it is killed.

I think this Hindu ceremony is ridiculously backward and inhumane, but at least they:

1. Are prepared to do it openly and have no pretenses about what it is they are killing and consuming.
2. Attach some significance to the process by doing it as part of a religious ceremony. In developed countries we just birth them, grow them, kill them without a single thought or concern.

Just because you don't take part in the slaughter at the abbatoir doesn't mean you are removed from the killing.

Dave

force fed and prevented from exercising so that their bodies take on shapes never seen in nature.

sacrifice. And by Hindus. That you do not understand does not make it not so.

This is pure blood lust on a mass scale. Yes, the United States kills millions of turkeys every year for it's Thanksgiving festival. No, when Palin, a really prime turkey stood in front of a slaughtering machine laughing and giggling, it was NOT OK.

I have an equally low opinion of the 'tradition' of bull fighting. Harking back to the Coliseum, public bloodletting and executions were outlawed for a reason.

OK let's start a religion glorifying dog fighting, bear baiting, aerial killing, baby seals, you name it.

It is not hard to see violence for what it is.

They do this every 5 years over there and you do it every year over here, so what's your point? Remember Thanksgiving is only a day away, how many turkeys have been killed to meet the demand for turkey on every Thanksgiving table over here... How many, I am just saying...

Many more animals than this are killed after being treated far more cruelly each and every day in the United States.

what a waste of food in Nepal

Are these free range, organic animals, or factory farm ones?

The execution of life isn't pretty, it's a dark passion.

are made into leather.

Only certain castes, and only certain of the many religions, have absolute proscriptions against eating meat. The meat is distributed among those for whom there is no proscription.

Of course nowadays noone mentions those large numbers and Native Americans are completely ignored at the ritual feast.

So what goes around, comes around.

is based on animal sacrifice. Indeed, the Christ story is that of a human sacrifice.

It's easy for us to criticize, and we no longer make religious sacrifices here, with the notable exception of the Santeria religion. However, we do kill and slaughter millions of animals for the table.

It should be noted that the animals sacrificed in this ritual in Nepal will also be processed and used for food and leather.

It's interesting to examine what the differences might be between what is happening in Nepal and what happens daily here....really. Think about it.

The Europeans were all disgusted to see how the Aztecs death penalty was apply sacrificing the war prisoners to the Gods while the European's ritual of the death penalty consisted in torturing, hanging and shooting the war prisoners. At the end both rituals were aim to kill the prisoner.

many Hindus will find this practice abhorrent.

I think a census showed that 15% Hindus are vegetarians.

...it's probably pretty gross.

"The dead beasts will be sold to companies who will profit from the sale of the meat, bones and hide..."

The animals are not wasted.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are people in the world who find our tradition of killing millions of turkeys at Thanksgiving as being barbarous and disgusting. It's all relative...

Lets bring back hanging in the town squares in the name of the Law and Order religion. Wonderful entertainment for the whole family. Bring the kiddies.

And to think that it was not much over 100 years ago that we had public hangings, eh, right here in the US of A. Some legal, some not. We're not so far removed from such spectacles, now, are we.

And children still stand around and watch dad lop the head off the Thanksgiving turkey here and there, even today. They laugh if it runs around with no head, too.

But, hey...I get what you're saying. I do.

The world is an absurd, diverse and kinda creepy place.
If we all got our way, then nobody would be allowed to ever do anything.

passions, but I don't look for an alibi in religion, tradition, sport or economics.

I was amazed so many animals were being slaughtered, not with the predictable celebration and excitement. "The Goodness needs blood", and the populous are only too eager to see it flying to the rhythm of a heart beat.

This is us. This is human nature.

You can make dog fighting strictly illegal, but you can't hide the appetite.

(I know this post isn't about that - but man, look at the poor things)...

I love pigs. I would love to have a pet pig.

I am so friggin weak. Granted I eat far less meat then I ever had, but I need to work up to none.

Poor lil guys.

Your head and your heart will thank you for it.

Dave (15 year vegetarian)

And, the longer I go with periods of eating none at all...

It builds on itself.

That's fair enough. For some people the physical transition can be harder than the psychological transition anyway. Some vegetarians talk about "hitting a wall" at around 3-4 years, where the body experiences a last-gasp meat withdrawal. It's only anecdotal, but I experienced something of the type.

The human body does not need "meat". It needs NUTRIENTS, and every nutrient the body needs can be found elsewhere.

But vegetarianism is actually easy, and not just for greenies and hippies and ferals (the stereotype). I'm working in IT in a 9-5 job. I don't smell and I don't wear dirty clothes. I'm married with 2 kids (all of us vegetarians)and we still do 90% of our shopping at the local supermarket.

In your own time, in your own mind.

Good luck and good health.

Dave

is what many DUers are now asking themselves.

is it. In Turkey, I remember the slaughtering of sheep in celebration of the end of Ramadan. Every household that could afford a lamb slit its throat in the front yard, then cooked it. This was in the late 1960s. I assume they're still doing it.

Some cultures are closer to the source than others, it seems.

:puke:

They do this every 5 years over there and you do it every year over here, so what's your point? Remember Thanksgiving is only a day away, how many turkeys have been killed to meet the demand for turkey on every Thanksgiving table over here... How many, I am just saying...

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."

Everyone knows that the proper shedding of blood requires Predator drones and Hellfire missiles -- the goddess will not be pleased.

watching a beheading in Saudi Arabia in the name of Religion, or a bull stabbed to death in Spain, in the name of culture.

In the United States, lust charges those huddled around a pit bull fight.

You can't argue this is an 'abnormally', a dark exception to human nature. The Colosseum operated for nearly four hundred years, the biggest building in Rome, packed out week after week. The lower levels were populated by slaves - prostitutes, so that spectators, charged up by the proceedings could get 'relief', before heading back to their seats for another fix.

It's abhorrent, and advocates have to find an excuse, a tradition, a religion, or economic necessity to cloak their joy, a sadistic, carnivorous darkness in the human soul, which we deny to a peril.

It's tradition for the Hajis to buy a livestock animal, have it slaughtered, and the meat donated to the poor. I don't know if it's considered "sacrifice" like this is considered sacrifice, but there are millions of Hajis and the Halal butchers work around the clock for weeks.

fired up, and more than ready for more.

How interesting.

And no it's not right for a little kid to torture and kill an animal either, seen or unseen.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I'm not sure where you are coming from. If you want to know where I'm coming from, read #26.

Yeah. Does it look like torture to you?

I've read your post #26. It was a shit post too.

Then, you can tell me the Colosseum was not the center of Roman life, and go on defend Mr Vick.

There were 1,000,000 people in ancient Rome, give or take, and most of them had much better things to do then sit a stadium that sat 50,000.

And another technical error is that the Colosseum was hardly the largest building in ancient Rome. The Circus Maximus, for example, was much bigger.

But aside from all the stupid historical errors was the poorly thought out opinion. That these people are some sort of barbarians participating in a bloodsport analogous to the killing of actual human beings.

If you want ignorant and barbaric, look no further than post #26.

It covered a lot of area, but that's about it.

The if you do not know Colosseum was the stage of pronouncements, and judgments by the Emperors after Titus, then you should read up on your errors.

And you've demonstrated you're not.

Let's leave it there, shall we?

Wiki?

We are arguing off topic, as you said, so lets leave it there

But lots of people are full of baloney, not just you.

and little to do with food.

That guy is killing COWS, which tells me this picture was NEVER taken in Nepal...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mXOJsfJyd74/SaMD-ztJeGI/AAAAAAAAB2c/DXFNkZWQRog/s400/beheading+3.JPG

A nice day's entertainment.

amongst massed crowds of cheering hunters.

Something tells me they would love that. :eyes:

This one is for Progressives.

It's authoritarian.

Progressive is tolerating the opinions expressed by others, and presenting a sound argument why the opinions should be rejected, if need be.

It's being Progressive.

Now run along.

I'll let my friends there know how badly they get under your skin.

Ass.

actions. To savagely kill animals for any god is absurd. And they wonder why they are starving. This is the destruction of their capital resources. It would be like Americans burning their cash; even more ignorant than bailing out the banks (pretty ignorant in itself). And people wonder why I am atheist.

It's an excuse for a slaughter enjoyed by the populace. There's nothing ignorant about a bull fight.

when the matador gets gored. Just kidding, I think they are ignorant and barbaric too. Just because the populace likes it doesn't make it less ignorant.

Just saying...

or perhaps they do that in your neck of the woods. Do tell.

cooking in the house although I don't eat it. Difference is we didn't kill 10,000 turkeys for the hell of it.

There's no need to kill all those turkeys, now is there? The animals sacrificed in this event still get eaten, so what's the difference? We have a "holiday" and they have a "holy day."

...it makes me sick.

i fail to see how this differs from what happens every day in the usa

oh, except it is done w. reverance and ceremony and an appreciation for the animal's sacrifice

we need to be more mindful that any time we eat an animal, it is a sacrifice of its life for ours..."greater love has no man that this"

i could give a fuck all what bardot has to say abt it, some of us (such as my hubby) require animal protein to stay alive

to celebrate and appreciate the animals who give their lives so we may live...what the hell is wrong w. that? isn't it what thanksgiving is all abt? how many turkeys get sacrificed so we can celebrate that? and i'm not criticizing, there is not a damn thing wrong w. celebrating abundance and the way that nature/animals feed us

When we do it, it is okay but when it is those other people, it is awful. How about you condemn the turkey killing for Thanksgiving... Anyone!

Hypocrisy!

we ritually consume a few million turkeys for a festival is more than a bit absurd.

A pedantic point, however; there's really no such thing as "animal protein." Proteins are just amino acids, and they're found everywhere -- where do you think the cow got 'em? Nobody requires "animal proteins" to survive.

This doesn't bother me. I saw nothing about torture or sadism.

Is it a bloodletting? Yes. But the human race has always demanded those. People snarling at and condemning it will make them cling to their traditions even more. Like all things, this will fade away eventually.

or group of deities. Let's not forget those religions that had human sacrifices at the core of their rituals.

but it had nothing to do with their religion(s), and everything to do with human nature. Slaughter was key to the circus, in bread and circuses.

I am just saying...

Of course, I would rather have an Ameglian Major Cow, since they take pride in making themselves tasty to diners.

I do not give a shit if it is a religious practice, it appalling. "It is the traditional way,"?? That is a cop out for barbarians and the stupid dogmas.

"If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled." Blow it out your ass.

It makes me terribly sad just looking at that picture.

If they so believe their invisible friend to be real, I suggest they all hope on the Jim Jones express and give their goddess the ultimate sacrifice, themselves.

Do they make a distinction between buffalo and cows, which are allowed to roam free in India? Or is this a Nepal thing?

If Christians did that some here would have a field day.


Just sayin'

But then, of course, how many Turkeys went into that good night in the last few weeks?

It brings a tear to my eye to see other cultures evolve to such evolved, learned, spiritual levels. I may need a hanky. :puke:

Thanks for the fucking warning on the fucking picture, asshole.

release turtles into the east river, where they all die, to increase their fangsheng (merit). They might as well smash them with sledge hammers as dump them in the freezing river. If you are a turtle in south east asia, barring the intervention of a true 70% mortality pandemic, you are truly fucked. No future.

That region is headed for a massive collapse.

Action based on religion is dangerous. Beliefs are personal, actions have impact.

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/chinatown-turtle-tug-of-war-felt-in-central-park/60769/

Actually, I read an article on the pilgrimage that many Muslims go on to Mecca and in the article, it said that part of the "festivities" is the slaughter of about 250,000 lambs / sheep. I didn't know they did that either.

Here's a clip from an article I just googled:

"During the celebration of Eid al-Adha, Muslims commemorate and remember Abraham's trials, by themselves slaughtering an animal such as a sheep, camel, or goat. This action is very often misunderstood by those outside the faith.

Allah has given us power over animals and allowed us to eat meat, but only if we pronounce His name at the solemn act of taking life. Muslims slaughter animals in the same way throughout the year. By saying the name of Allah at the time of slaughter, we are reminded that life is sacred.

The meat from the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha is mostly given away to others. One-third is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor. The act symbolizes our willingness to give up things that are of benefit to us or close to our hearts, in order to follow Allah's commands. It also symbolizes our willingness to give up some of our own bounties, in order to strengthen ties of friendship and help those who are in need. We recognize that all blessings come from Allah, and we should open our hearts and share with others."

or their dreams never really come true. What a perfect example of using religion to trick masses into decimating their own wealth - thereby remaining poor and powerless.

and not being particularly cruel in the way the animals are killed I don't see an issue.

If it's all being wasted then I have a major problem. But I doubt they could afford to slaughter a quarter million animals every 5 years for no benefit.

This is not harmful to the people's interests so long as the animal products are being used for the people's good. It would be preferable to do this in a way to minimize pain to the animals, however, if this isn't forbidden by the religionists.

...

Any"goddess"that demands that level of carnage to be persuaded to be kind is not worth honoring. I know Sekhmet almost killed off humanity,..at least she was ashamed when she realized what she had done.
All gods including the christian god have a taste for war,carnage,rape,sacrifices,subjugation,on and on.
All gods are capricious sociopaths.

Existence itself is a long list of carnage,life kills life,eats life to live and all die anyway.
In this perspective,all die anyway.These Nepalese hope a goddess will spare them,but,she will not.
Life lived as it is in this world is an unavoidable,uncontrollable,unpredictable, more often a sad,senseless,tragedy.