Carnage in Gadhimai Festival.
Held every 5 years at the Gadhimai temple of Bariyarpur, in Bara District of Nepal, the Gadhimai festival is considered to be world’s largest animal sacrifice event. Started about 300 years ago this festival has claimed the lives of billions of innocent animals such as water buffalo, goats, pigs, pigeons, rats and roosters all in the name of religion. Many animal rights organization such as Humane Society International have tried desperately to end this massive bloodshed but all their efforts has garner little to no success. In 2009 the death toll of the animals was 500,000. Due to various efforts the number was reduced to 30,000. It is estimated that 7,000 buffaloes were brought for beheading at this year Gadhimai festival. This shows that we still have a long way to go to stop this cruel practice. Devotee carrying khukuri, a type of Nepalese blade used for animal beheading. The origin of this festival is rather peculiar. It is said that the founder of the Gadhimai temp...