In Nepal, largest mass religious slaughter takes place in reverence to Hindu goddess

The world's largest religious mass slaughter occurred in Nepal on November 29, a religious festival in the Hindu tradition dedicated to the goddess Gadhimai.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Motilal Kushwaha was just one of the tens of thousands who took part in the ritual. He sacrificed a goat to the goddess after he asked for one of his children to find a job.

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His son was successful, and so Kushwaha followed through during the ritual in southern Nepal.

"From my village everyone has made a vow (to offer animals)," he said.

Many in his village, which lies 60 miles south of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, make offerings in thanks for children or other forms of good fortune.

In Nepal, 90% of the population is Hindu, and officials estimated that five million people from Nepal, and the bordering Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, attended the two day festival.

The religious ritual began on November 28, where male water buffalo calves are killed. The next day attention shifts to goats. Festival officials estimate that 10,000 buffalo calves and 150,000 goats will be ritually slaughtered for Gadhimai.

While this may sound massive, the numbers are actually lower than the last such festival, celebrated five years ago in 2009. Then, nearly 20,000 buffalo calves and 200,000 goats were ritually killed.

This is due, in large part, to the ongoing effort of animal rights activists who oppose the festival as cruel.

"We object to the cruelty with which )these) animals are treated," said Pramada Shah, a member of the Animal Welfare Network Nepal. "There is random hacking of animals in open space. Not all animals have their heads chopped off. Some take up to 40 minutes to die."

This is not the only moment the group opposes. Because of terrain and lack of infrastructure, these animals must be transported to the festival on foot.

"By the time they get to the festival venue they are half dead," Shah said. They are kept two or three days without food after they are brought here."

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