Can you picture 7,000 young buffaloes being rounded up and killed by a thousand drunk men carrying large knives? A festival where 200,000 animals are killed to please a goddess?This is exactly what -if nothing is done- will happen in November 2009 in Nepal. The Gadimai Festival in Bariyarpur, Bara District, is held each 5 years. The mass sacrifice turns the entire area into a marshy land of blood.Animal Welfare Network Nepal wants to end this bloody, cruel practice. Go to http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-gadimai.html to sign a petition addressed to the Ministers of Tourism, Agriculture, Peace and Law and Justice.
For more information about the festival go to http://animalnepal.org/campaigns_wwc.htm
A number of religious groups in Nepal are opposing the mass sacrifice. Palden Dorje or Buddha boy, a young religious leader, plans to bless the devotees ahead of the event with the aim to stop their involvement in animal sacrifice: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-331005
For those who can stomach, a documentary can be watched here: http://www.flixya.com/video/2192757/Gadhi_Mai_Mela_Part_1 http://www.flixya.com/video/2192758/Gadhi_Mai_Mela_Part_2