AGONY OF MILLIONS, KILLED FOR RELIGION Fields weep with the blood of endless slit throats — where a quarter million buffalo, pigs, goats and more animals lay mutilated. The crowd wields dull knives, old swords. Babies cry near beheaded mothers…

This is the Gadhimai Festival, the biggest of Nepal’s many blood rituals, to honor the Hindu goddess of power. Apparently Gadhimai requires deliberate torture before she’ll grant the wishes of her human disciples. The two-day homage occurs in the village of Bariyapur in the Bara District. In 2009, five million people were present.

Blood rituals occur routinely in Nepal. Animals are skinned and burned alive, smashed and shredded. The Gadhimai repeats every 5 years, next up in 2014. Voices worldwide hope to shut it down, along with all live sacrifice in Nepal.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Ask Nepal’s government to enact an Animal Welfare Law that shields animals from all forms of abuse, including ritual sacrifice. Urge officials to ban blood festivals nationwide. Animal sacrifice belongs with human sacrifice, honor killings…buried, done, illegal. Torture to uphold religious tradition has no place in the 21st century.