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Thousands of animals sacrificed at Nepal festival
Quote:
Millions of devotees attended a mass animal sacrifice in Nepal on Friday, despite efforts by animal rights activists to end the practice.
The organisers of the Gadhimai festival, which is held in Bariyarpur, near the border with India, claimed about five million worshippers came to sacrifice tens of thousands of animals, including buffaloes, goats and birds, as an act of gratitude to the Hindu goddess.
However, in a sign that the campaign to end the practice may have had some impact, the number of buffaloes killed dropped to about 5,000, half the number slaughtered when the festival was last held five years ago.
Thousands of buses, tractors and carts packed with families cradling goats and birds for the sacrifice blocked the small dusty road leading to the Gadhimai temple. Huge crowds massed around the temple to receive a blessing, while a constant stream of pleas from desperate parents who had lost their children blared out from the public address system.
The climax of the day is the killing of thousands of buffaloes in a huge compound surrounded by a high wall. Hundreds of men, especially chosen for the task, walk among the animals, holding long curved machetes above their heads, and then decapitate the buffaloes with a blow to the back of the neck.
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