NP: Images of Gadhimai 'festival' - WARNING: IMAGES ARE VERY DISTURBING

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

Images speak a thousand words. Especially in the case of extreme cruelty.

The images you find attached are very disturbing. You as an animal welfare

campaigner must decide what you want to do with them. You can delete the

images immediately, or use them in your efforts to help stop the world's

largest animal sacrifice at Gadhimai 'festival' in Bara district, Nepal.

 

When we started the campaign against Gadhimai we hardly had any images. The

ones we had were of poor quality, which made it hard to convey the level of

cruelty involved. This time we have observed the festival at close hand. We

decided to photograph and film the horrendous cruelty taking place there so

that the world could never say: 'we didn't know it was THAT bad'. Our team

has gone through tremendous physical and emotional effort to bear witness.

Please regard these images in that light.

 

If you publish the images please credit Bibi Funyal where the caption reads

Bibi, and credit Animal Welfare Network Nepal for all others. In

return please send a donation according to your financial abilities to

support the Gadhimai Campaign. You find the bank details at

http://animalnepal.org/donations.htm When you send money please mention

'Animal Welfare Network Nepal'. If you like to partner in our upcoming

5-year grassroots campaign, feel free to contact us.

 

*Background info to the images:*

 

- An estimated 16,000 water buffaloes were killed in total. Many were

publicly beheaded by 250 licensed butchers in an arena. Visitors were

allowed by paying Rs 25. The animals were not tethered and not held by

anyone. The remaining buffaloes were killed individually, somewhere in a 3

km radius around the temple by anyone wanting to do so.

- Over 50,000 goats were killed by individual devotees at any place and by

any means in the vicinity of the temple.

- An unknown others kinds of animals such as sheep, pigs, rats, pigeons,

chicken, et cetera were killed similarly. The piglet showed in the photos is

being killed with a simple household knife.

- The animals were not given food or water since 2/3 days. Some had already

died before the killings started; their bodies were simply left with the

living

-The killings were promoted and presented as a spectacle - many butchers and

onlookers were actually laughing during it all. One butcher, Ramlal Mahato,

is quoted as saying: 'The more animals I kill, the more satisfied I feel. I

am helping an ancient tradition to survive.'

 

 

We can only hope that images such as these will ensure that the Gadhimai

killings will NEVER EVER happen again.

 

Animal Welfare Network Nepal

www.gadimai.blogspot.com

www.awnnepal.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands