Gadhimai: Nepal's mass animal slaughter begins despite outcry
Posted on AllSides December 3rd, 2019
From The Left
![](https://dev.allsides.com/sites/default/files/styles/news_large_image/public/a3ef94b9b005406d9059abe02b8fdcb8_18.jpg?itok=X8WvVZ3O)
Hindu worshippers have begun slaughtering thousands of buffalo as part of a religious ritual held every five years in southern Nepal, despite efforts to end the practice considered the world's biggest sacrifice of animals at any one site.
The Gadhimai Festival - a two-day festival in honour of the Hindu goddess of power - kicked off in the early hours of Tuesday amid tight security, with the ceremonial slaughter of a goat, rat, chicken, pig and pigeon. A local shaman then offered blood from five points of his body.