Progress toward abolishing animal sacrifice in Nepal and India

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

 

 

Progress toward abolishing animal sacrifice in Nepal and India

 

KATHMANDU-- " Though a ceasefire between the government and the

Maoist guerrillas has held for over a year now, " India News Service

reporter Sudeshna Sarkar wrote from the Nepalese capital city of

Kathmandu on October 19, 2007, " Nepal is passing through one of

its goriest periods with thousands of animals being sacrificed daily

on the occasion of Dashain, the biggest Hindu festival in the

country.

" On the eighth day of the nearly fortnight-long

celebrations, " Sarkar explained, " animal killings reach a

crescendo, with buffaloes, goats, and chickens being slaughtered. "

But since the recent dissolution of the Nepalese theocracy,

Sarkar noted, dissent against the sacrifices--formerly personally

led by the king--has emerged.

" Amid growing protest by animal rights activists, hundreds of

red-robed lamas stopped speaking in monasteries across 22 districts, "

Sarkar said, " to issue silent prayers for the welfare of all

creatures of god. The prayers started from Lumbini in southern

Nepal, where the Buddha was born. "

Sarkar cited an " opinion poll by a private television station, "

which " showed over 60% of the respondents said the festival would

remain incomplete without animal sacrifices. "

But Damodar Neupane of the Kathmandu Post approvingly

profiled the villages of Chumchet and Chhekampar, in Gorkha, " eight

days' walk " from the seat of regional government, where the

Bhutan-born guru Dukpa Ringpoche Serab Dorje abolished animal

sacrifice in 1917.

" Five years after his arrival all the villagers had gone

vegetarian, " Neupane wrote.

" Nobody breached the rule, " recalled 91-year-old villager

Chhewang Laharke. " Everyone follows the teachings of the guru,

which have become an integral part of our precious culture. "

Added local guru Dawang Khenrab, " We have taken the decision

to discourage other people from animal sacrifice. "

Kathmandu-based BBC reporter Charles Haviland observed that

" New dissenters are questioning both the scale and the methods of the

killing. An article in the Nepali Times weekly says most buffaloes,

like smaller animals, are decapitated but the bigger ones are

battered to death with a heavy hammer on the forehead.

" Respected botanist Tirtha Shrestha, writing in the same

paper, says that in Bhaktapur, near Kathmandu, pigs are skinned

alive and their beating hearts offered to the temple, while in a

nearby village people tear apart a live goat. 'Decapitating a

bleating buffalo or goat should not be the symbol of the Nepali

civilisation,' he says. 'Why are we exhibiting such cruelty, and how

does this reflect on our society?'

" The suffering of the people of Nepal [in the recent civil

war] and the slaughter of [nine members of] the family of the King "

in a June 2000 rage massacre attributed to a prince who later shot

himself " is due to such stupid practices, " opined Blue Cross of

India chief executive Chinny Krishna, who has made personal efforts

to encourage Nepalese opposition to sacrifice.

" I am convinced that all the troubles for the kings of Nepal

is due to their cruel participation and perpetuation of this barbaric

practice, " Krishna continued. " If the kings believe in the Hindu

philosophy, they must surely know that there is an inexorable law of

action and reaction under which cruelty begets more cruelty and

suffering. "

But similar sacrifices continue in parts of India, exempted

from prosecution by Section 28 of the federal Prevention of Cruelty

to Animals Act of 1960, which says, " Nothing contained in this Act

shall render it an offence to kill any animal in a manner required by

the religion of any community. "

Reported The Statesman, of Kolkata, " Reports of

slaughtering of nearly 200 animals poured in from three prominent

shakti shrines during the midnight hours on 19 October.

" Tradition was allowed to prevail. Animal sacrifice is

practised by the local politicians, the police and the revenue

officials, " explained animal advocate Bijoy Kabi. " The first goat

butchered at the Satabhaya shrine was offered by a police station, "

Kabi alleged.

" Eid followed by Durga Puja, and you have blood and more

blood flowing country-wide, " lamented Assamese activist Azam

Siddique, referring to the Feast of Atonement slaughters practiced

by Muslims and the more common Indian term for the occasion called

Dasain in Nepal and Dasara in southern India.

Siddique described several sacrifices he had heard about in

Assam, and recalled that " in a place called Belsor, " where 100

buffalos were sacrificed this year, " the superintendent of police

last year sacrificed and danced with a buffalo head on his shoulders.

This year it is alleged that a senior minister in the state

government was also party to the slaughter, " Siddique added.

But Bano Haralu of New Delhi Television profiled the

Haatkhola Dutta Bari family of north Kolkata, who gave up animal

sacrifice in 1794, and have now shunned sacrifice for 28 generations.

State and city governments have some leeway to ban or

restrict sacrifice in public places. " Animal sacrifice as part of

Dasara festivities has been banned under the Karnataka Prevention of

Animal and Bird Sacrifice Act since 1959, " The Hindu reminded

Bangalore residents on October 19.

The Hindu mentioned the next day that, " Animal sacrifice for

Dasara has been banned in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal

Corporation limits, " and that " Violators would be prosecuted under

the Andhra Pradesh Animals and Birds Sacrifice Prohibition Act of

1950, according to city veterinary officer N. Karunakara Rao. "

In Cuttack, The Hindu noted on October 22, " In the absence

of any specific law banning animal sacrifice in the country, the

district administration was able to sensitize the people against this

age-old practice. "

Said district deputy collector [deputy chief administrator]

Aditya Mohapatra " No report of any animal sacrifice was received

from any part of Cuttack district. "

The four major temples in the district reportedly ended

animal sacrifice in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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