Ashamed to be human

Half a loaf is better than none? It would be a start toward them considering the madness of wanton destruction, which could perhaps lead on to more. Just condemning the whole thing from our position outside the religion won't work. We just get the "You don't understand our traditions" resistance.

I can see using the slaughtered animals for food would make a moral difference. Not sure it would be much consolation to the animals though!

At least the turkeys are eaten for food.

If the animals slaughtered in Nepal were cooked and the meat eaten as part of the festival, they would have contributed to the feeding of the hungry.

Excavations of prehistoric sites show evidence of similar mass ritual sacrifices - but also of vast crowds gathered together for the feast. Much more practical.

Does anyone know how many turkeys are about to be slaughtered for the Christmas table?

Taking just the UK and the USA into account, it must be many tens of thousands (at least).

Christmas is a religious festival to many people, especially in the USA.

Perhaps the people of Napal would think breeding birds for people to shoot for sport so very wrong, or a gang of thugs on horseback with a pack of hounds chasing a solitary animal across the country side so very wrong , do they practice battery farming in Napal?

I saw a wildlife programme where they showed films of animals in schools as a way of stopping the children growing up and hunting the local monkeys for food and poaching in general. It's not a quick fix but it will reap rewards in the future. It wasn't all that long ago that people in this country travelled miles to watch hangings and treated them as a good days entertainment. When your life is pretty precarious people seem to get comfort from watching horrid things.Which doesn't defend it. Deep down inside us we are still hunter gatherers, and our close relatives, chimpanzees show that. I agree with educating the people in Nepal for what has happened but I can't demonize them for it.

papaoscar even though I don't eat meat myself, I would not disagree that the humane raising and slaughtering of animals for food is defensible.

But I don't think the meat production industry is, on the whole, humane. There is tremendous cruelty involved in the raising and slaughter of animals, all in the name of endless supplies of cheap meat for the consumer and maximum profits for the provider.

I would guess that those animals undergoing ritual slaughter for religious purposes do not suffer any more than animals reared in the West for food.

that sort of education is obviously fine.

The kind of education I'm talking about is not the sort that would tell people their customs are wrong but the sort that teaches people to read so that they can get to know about other views of the world and then decide for themselves because they have a choice how they lead their lives.

Helping poor countries build schools so kids can go to school is not colonialism. One could call it charitableness, just as it was in this country when schools were initially provided for poor kids.

Such wanton destruction and cruelty is hard to understand, particularly as presumably the meat isn't even used for food. Otherwise, as petallus said, wouldn't the scene in an abbatoir (although on a smaller scale) seem equally gruesome and barbaric?

I think, as others have said, the best thing to do is to support the Indian and Nepalese organisations that oppose these practices.

Why are so many religions obsessed with sacrifice and suffering?

I think until we shake off this fear of being seen as 'telling people what to do' and instead accept that we can support people to change things for themselves we will keep on sitting back and allowing evil to thrive. That applies to all sorts of things, as absent rightly says. We should never be afraid to speak out against barbaric and cruel practices whether they are to other humans or to other species.

Cruelty is cruelty, wherever it takes place and whoever does it. The humane raising and slaughter of animals for food is one thing, but the periodic, frenzied public mutilation and slaughter of animals in the open for so-called religious purposes is indefensible, as is the mutilation of children. So, yes, at times I am to be ashamed to be part of the human race.

There is a lot of opposition to this 'in their own country' so I don't see it as being arrogant enough to 'tell them what to do' but rather as giving support to the groups in Nepal and India fighting to have the slaughter stopped. In fact the Indian government has banned transport of animals into Nepal and border controls have been stepped up to try to prevent the movement of cattle for sacrifice. Many Hindus are appalled at the practice and do not see it as having any place in modern day Hindusim, which is generally a very peaceful religion. I am happy to give them my support.

Thanks for the link to the petition Nfk, it's still worth signing to keep the pressure on before the next festival in five years time.

We can try and "educate" them. oops, even writing that seems wrong. All sort of colonism.

Who are we to tell them what to do.
Seems like racism to me.

I dont think that we should barge in telling them what to do.
If they do it in this country, then yes, it becomes our business.

(My response was to bags' post, not absent's!)

Exactly. And they won't be bothered about what we consider acceptable or not.

soontobe Does your distaste apply to other cultural practices, such as FGM, honour killings, forced marriages, rape as punishment for independent women, displacement of indigenous peoples, genocide, or is it applicable only to the senseless killing of animals?

I don't suppose those doing the sacrificing think it is wanton cruelty. To them it is purposeful.

Neither situation is acceptable to me nightowl

Blood sacrifices to gods have featured throughout human history, here as well as elsewhere. Such practices die out when education improves for whole populations.

They may be doing it through fear of not doing it.

I dont feel comfortable telling them what they should and should not do in their own country.

What happens to the meat? Presumably not consumed? Seems like a great waste of resources to me. It is a barbaric ceremony but i am not 'ashamed to be human'