The world's biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.
A quick Google search for Gadhimai Mela will give you lots and lots of links to animal lovers and western religious groups lamenting the slaughter of all these animals.
What is it about this festival that so bothers our Western sense of civility? Is it the seemingly barbaric nature of the religious rite or is it the stories of decapitation of thousands of animals in front of crowds? Perhaps it's a bit of both.
But in the U.S. we slaughter more cattle each and every week than will be killed in the entirety of the festival- 90,000 cows a day in fact. In the U.S. cattle are typically hung by their hind legs to make the slitting of their throats easier. Is that really better than decapitation in devotion to a goddess? Why do we condemn the Nepalese and build statues of cattle on the old stockyards in Omaha just a few miles from my home?
The meat and hides from the slaughter at Gadhimai Melawill be sold or given away to those in attendance or local governmental or business interests. One could argue that it's not a particularly fair way to distribute the profits, but that misses the point.Ritualistic killing of animals for religious reasons is stupid. Not only is it wasteful and cruel to the animals and reeking of corruption and indoctrination, it diverts our energies from more useful activities. The problem with Gadhimai Mela is not the animal slaughter. We slaughter more animals in just as cruel ways all the time.
The problem is that these poor people are being led to believe that if they take their families to watch the blood soak the earth then their goddess will be pleased enough to grant them their wishes.
Believing in gods or goddesses doesn't give you moral authority to do wasteful, stupid, and distracting things. It just makes you stupid and superstitious.
Believing in gods or goddesses doesn't give you moral authority to do wasteful, stupid, and distracting things. It just makes you stupid and superstitious.
Raise your cattle, Nepalese. Enjoy that steak. Carve your turkey, Americans. Enjoy that drumstick. But how about this year instead of pretending that decapitating a buffalo or thanking Yahweh for our machine-slaughtered turkey, we all aspire to be better stewards of our livestock in return for being so delicious? And instead of pretending that the killing and eating of those animals and praying over their carcases will bring us heavenly rewards, we go out and make another person's existence better in this life?
We can spare a free range drumstick for someone that might otherwise go without, and it will do more good then all the Thanksgiving prayers and righteous indignation we could ever muster.
I'd like to be sure to give credit where credit is due. Images used are from: http://blog.xnepali.com/
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/
We can spare a free range drumstick for someone that might otherwise go without, and it will do more good then all the Thanksgiving prayers and righteous indignation we could ever muster.
I'd like to be sure to give credit where credit is due. Images used are from: http://blog.xnepali.com/
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/
http://skepticalteacher.files.wordpress.com/
"...we all aspire to be better stewards of our livestock in return for being so delicious..."
ReplyDelete"...we go out and make another person's existence better in this life..."
ummm.... why?
Why should we be better stewards of our livestock? Because it's the right thing to do. Animals are sentient beings that deserve to be treated as humanely as we reasonably can.
ReplyDeleteWhy make another person's existence better in this life? Because this life is the only one we have and doing something as simple as sharing a meal is a good example of how we can tangibly better the lives of those around us, as opposed to prayer and consternation over the Mela, which accomplishes little to nothing.