End of Animal Sacrifice at the Gadhimai Festival

Animal Equality has campaigned for years to end the sacrifice. Last year, our efforts led to a 70% reduction of the animals killed, therefore saving thousands of water buffalos, goats, pigeons and other animals from a violent death. We are very pleased with the decision of the Gadhimai Temple Trust and sincerely hope that they stick to their decision through the coming festivals. Animal Equality would like to congratulate Animal Welfare Network Nepal, People For Animals and Humane Society International for their efforts on this great success. And would also like to congratulate the hundreds of thousands of people who took part in worldwide protests and signed petitions to end the sacrifice. The global outrage and the help from the Government of India have played an influential role in this. Less than two weeks ago, Animal Equality released a documentary as a part of our End The Sacrifice campaign. Through the documentary, we not only brought to light the atrocities inflicted on animals but also debunked all the myths related to the practice of animal sacrifice.

During our international campaign to end animal sacrifice during the Gadhimai Festival, we have also:

• Lobbied the Government of India to issue a directive to restrict movement of animals across the Indo-Nepal border during the Gadhimai festival, leading to a huge reduction of animals being killed.
• Gathered volunteers from across India who assisted the Police department and the Border Police, SSB to stop the transport of animals across the border, resulting in more than 2000 animals being confiscated while trying to cross the border.

Due to these efforts, the number of animals sacrificed at the Gadhimai festival in 2014 witnessed a heavy dip. The temple committee planned to sacrifice 10,000 buffaloes but managed to sacrifice not more than 2000 and according to some reports, the total number of animals sacrificed was about 30,000 whereas it was 200,000 in 2009. Amruta Ubale of Animal Equality says, “This is a historic milestone. Hundreds of thousands of animals will no longer be victims of violence at Gadhimai Festival. This shows that international pressure pays off and this is a victory for all the people and organizations who have worked tirelessly in recent years to end this slaughter. We are very pleased with the decision of the Gadhimai temple trust. Ahimsa (nonviolence to all living beings) is an important tenet of the Hindu religion and we are glad that the Gadhimai temple trust is finally implementing it in their practice.” Please share this important news to encourage the Gadhimai Temple Trust’s decision and help save thousands of animals!