Growing calls in Nepal to halt animal slaughter during Dussehra

KATHMANDU - When she was eight, Pramada Shah nee Rana remembers how she threw a tantrum when her grandmother ordered a goat to be bought and sacrificed as a thanksgiving to the gods for fulfilling a wish.

“When they brought the goat home from the market, I thought it was going to be a household pet,” says the 41-year-old, who is today part of a growing campaign by animal rights activists to stop animal sacrifices during Hindu religious festivals, sports that inflict pain on animals and activities that are cruel to them.

“When I realised it was going to be slaughtered, I cried so much that my family decided not to sacrifice the goat, which then grew up in our house in Sanepa.”

Today, she is married into the former royal family of Nepal, who, by tradition, were one of the staunchest believers in sacrifices.

Deposed king Gyanendra, her uncle-in-law, has hit the headlines for offering sacrifices at the temples of power goddesses even after his ouster.

On Thursday, Shah and other activists under the umbrella of the Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN) will lead a march to the same Dakshinakali temple, where the former king had slaughtered five animals and birds in a ritualistic worship, to urge Nepalis to stop animal sacrifices.

“We will be offering pumpkins and coconuts at the shrine of the goddess,” Shah told IANS. “It is a symbolic demonstration to show there are alternatives. You dont have to sacrifice animals to worship.

Animal lovers are alarmed that with the festival of Dashain, Nepals biggest religious celebration corresponding to Indias Dussehra, starting from Friday, the republics temples will be awash with the blood of slaughtered animals and birds.

The ninth day of the 10-day festival is the goriest when thousands of animals and birds are sacrificed countrywide throughout the night at the various temples of Kali, one of the nine manifestations of Durga, the goddess of power.

AWNN is going to put up banners at some of the temples witnessing the worst carnage, bearing graphic photographs of slaughters and urging people to stay the axe.

The campaign became known last year after it opposed the wanton massacre at a five-yearly fair held on the border of Nepal and India and thronged by thousands of Indians.

The Gadimai fair sees the biggest butchery of animals in the world with the fields turning into rivers of blood and carcasses rotting on the ground for days.

AWNN has formed an alliance with Indias Beauty without Cruelty animal rights group to step up an awareness campaign.

It is a cross-border issue, Shah said. We have also been seeking to incorporate animal rights in the new constitution.

However, animal lovers are chagrined that the major political parties of Nepal dont think the issue to be important. Only six of the 601 MPs invited to a meeting to discuss animal welfare in the new statute turned up.

AWNN is also asking the government, which funds religious festivals, to stop providing money for sacrifices.

The government should ideally put an end to sacrifices, Shah says. However, if it cant do that it should at least respect the sentiments of people who are against the brutality and stay neutral.

Pramada, who put an end to animal sacrifices in her in-laws house, realises that the campaign would get greater impetus if the former king, who is still revered by thousands of traditional Nepalis, stops performing animal sacrifices.

They (the former royals) are very much aware of what is happening, that there is an outcry against animal sacrifices, she says. If the former king joined the campaign, it will be wonderful.