Ending the sacrifice at Gadhimai, part two
Large numbers of volunteers from Indian animal welfare groups arrived to assist the Border Patrol in spotting people trying to take animals to Nepal.
Large numbers of volunteers from Indian animal welfare groups arrived to assist the Border Patrol in spotting people trying to take animals to Nepal.
…the temple authorities of Gadhimai Temple made the announcement that the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of animals, held every five years, would be permanently canceled. The world’s largest animal sacrifice had finally come to an end.
An item in our Ernest Bell Library. French postcard – anti-vivisection It is quite unusual…
“Everyone says they will help the Romanian dogs. They go home, they forget. You will go home, you’ll forget”. Our reply, “We will not forget”.”
In any discussion of ecotourism the dangers of “greenwashing” must be explored. Greenwashing is the use of misleading advertisements to suggest that an activity is good for the environment when objectively it is not. Wildlife theme parks, underwater hotels and motorized tours into fragile ecosystems strive to portray themselves as environmentally positive (or neutral) but they are not. True ecotourism builds environmental awareness while emphasizing human rights and local control over resources and development. It is not solely about animals but also about the humans who live there, and have lived there in the past, often for thousands of years.
So many backyards in our neighborhood are covered with grass and non-native plants which are unfriendly to wildlife. Animals can only utilize certain plants as food and some are unusable or even poisonous. Grass is an environmental disaster. It requires a prodigious amount of water which in drought regions is irreplaceable. Pesticides are generally used it which poison the ecosystem and drain off into our rivers and oceans. People then mow it and put the clippings in plastic bags which are hauled away (using fossil fuels) to the landfill. What a tragedy!