The Significance of Animal Sacrifice in the Ritual Practices

Introduction:

Animal sacrifice, is ‘supposed to be’ a ritual where an animal is killed for food for a cause in a religion. The first animal sacrifice is dated all the way back to Adam and Eve’s time by the Bible, it was when God wanted to punish them for their committed sin by ‘shredding blood’, it represented the end of life which built fear within mankind ever since. Years later, religions were formed and suggested animal sacrifices as a disguise of a sin and a sacrifice of a life to replace their punishment. Over the many years it seems animal sacrifice has lost its value and its original cause. The people who sacrifice animals as per their religion no longer know why the tradition is performed nor know its importance. Animal sacrifice is now just a blind belief continued for generations and practiced around the globe. The animals mainly sacrificed are camels, goats, cattle’s, sheep’s and buffaloes.

Issue:

Animal sacrifice poses as an issue because it is not only a huge problem for the animals but for the future generation as well. It supports killing of animals and breaks it down into a much smaller threat than it actually is. It also deadens the effect of animal torture in the mind’s young children and adults by the overexposure of graphic animal torture images.

The distributors of these animals are not at fault any less, they are the reason for the transport of these animals. Due to their evil business most of the animals are treated harshly and cruelly. These distributors most of the time cross the animal transport law (a punishable crime), by stuffing many animals together in confined places for the entire journey. It has also been reported that some animals die of suffocation while being transported overseas.

People of the society that wish that illtreating animals should be stopped are the same people who turned pig to pork, cow to beef and enjoy having them for dinner. They buy meat from the supermarket even when knowing the history behind its arrival but act normal and unaware of the most obvious fact. This can be set as a bad example for the future generation.

Analysis:

Society means a group of people living together in an ordered community and sharing their thoughts openly with others for betterment, but now people are just making fun of or insulting others people’s opinion. The same happens when a person stands up for animals and state what they think would be the best for animals, but the society just avoids the solution by making it a joke. The person gets burdened down and decides to do nothing for the animals, millions of people are then discouraged due to this.

To support animals’ people can follow organizations such as PETA, PAWS, WWF, etc. on social media who enlighten their fight for animal rights on online. During this process they reveal graphic animal torture images that are shared throughout the internet to raise awareness instead, the people and the future generation might not get affected by the torture animals bare on a regular basis and just might get familiar with it. In this way the animals will never get their justice and rights that they truly deserve, the continues efforts of these organizations are wasted and their motivation is decreased.

Animal distributors fulfil the high demand of the people for animals that they slaughter and sacrifice. The executioners of the slaughterhouse are at fault as well, which is partially true because they are forced to do so. The pressure of finance forces them and they are left with no choice. It has also been reported that most of the executioners of the slaughterhouse face emotional and psychological distress due to the high pressure of the society on them as well as taking innocent animal lives.

Perspectives:

Global: Animal sacrifice is practiced throughout the entire globe, but is highly practiced in Iran and almost banned Switzerland. Iran is far away from banning animal sacrifice, they have no soul to think about the animals and has no laws against it nor does it support Animal Welfare. Iran does not protect animals in any way, may it be animals in research, captive, companion etc. Switzerland on the other hand has a managed and thought out idea for the welfare of their animals. Switzerland cares about their animals and consider their safety during research, farming, companion etc. Switzerland to some extent educates its people on animal sacrifice which Iran does not.

National:

India is land of mixed cultures and religions, and most of its religions have performed animal sacrifice. India is the second most populated country in the world and if one of its regions decides to sacrifice animals, it can cause a big problem. The Gadhimai Festival is a ritual celebrated in southern Nepal that sacrifices thousands and thousands of animals. In 2015, the supreme court of Nepal asked the government to discourage the sacrifice of animals. Yet, the people and temple authorities overruled these statements.

Local:

After conducting a survey to analyze the perspective of people in my locality on animal sacrifice, I can conclude that maximum of them are against this practice. Majority of the people are familiar with animal sacrifice and some have deep knowledge about this injustice. Majority of the people haven’t been a part of the act of animal sacrifice and want it to stop. They think that animal sacrifice is not significant in todays society and should not be continued nor supported.

Personal:

I believe that animal sacrifice has its own benefits, if we humans slaughter animals such as goats who have a fast reproduction rate, we can prevent overpopulation of these animals. The overpopulation of these animals may result in unbalance of ecosystems and can further affect the animals that are their prey. Thus, it will be difficult for these animals to find enough food. But the rate at which we humans slaughter animal for sacrifices or consuming is far much and very cruel. In my opinion I think we humans should slaughter animals to a required level, I agree this being an inappropriate approach but we shall also consider about the environment.

Courses of Action:

I believe that we should inform people about animal sacrifice, but inform in depth as many people are familiar with animal sacrifice but do not know the entire truth. We shall reach out to as many people we can, inform them and ask them to sign a petition against animal sacrifice and slaughter. We could then present the petition in the UN and clung on to the hope that animal sacrifice, slaughter, torture, cruelty will be abolished to some extent if not fully.

In my opinion, animal sacrifice can also be substituted and celebrated in many different ways. On religious days, we can help the poor and the less fortunate humans and animals. We can sponsor their trip to the doctor/vet, sponsor their visit to a barber shop, give them some food or manage to supply them with a steady amount. These activities can be performed on the day that the animal sacrifice was about to take place.

Evaluation of Sources:

PETA India

PETA is an organization that supports and protects animal rights across the globe. It has about 6.5 million members and supporters and has its NGOs all around the globe that help raise awareness in multiple countries. As the organization is global, it is likely to be reliable and helpful towards the animals or they could be sued easily. PETA is also a non-profit organization, that sends people to a slaughterhouse to film videos to support their blogs with proof. One can view and read about their fight towards animal right on their online web page. This webpage is published by them thus, can be reliable.

World Animal Protection

World Animal Protection is like PETA and also fights for animal rights and animal welfare. It covers the entire world as in, it researches about every country’s approach and their action towards animals which PETA doesn’t thus, making this website more reliable. World Animal Protection presents their researched data in a statistical and graded manner where as PETA most likely depends on their views and opinions thus, this website is less biased and more statistical.

Conclusion:

After analyzing my research, I can conclude that animal sacrifice should be banned, but not entirely. Although most of the world has evolved and the people’s beliefs have changed over time, there are still some people who believe in what their ancestors/god told them. Most of the people who sacrifice animals are either uneducated or unaware of what they are doing, I believe we should give these people some space and time to catch up with the rest of the world and eventually they will surpass these beliefs. But we shall consider the time we give them as the mindset of the future generation might then get affected. The number of animals sacrificed on regular basis should drastically decrease, the government for now shall set a limit at which animals can be slaughtered for every slaughterhouse, if it excides the government must take immediate action. Eventually, the government can decrease the limit and make the punishment more effective.

Reflection:

At the start of the research I felt that animal sacrifice was just wrong, the society did not feel any empathy for the animals and blindly followed their religion. But after researching in depth as well as conducting a local survey, I realized that the society does care about the animals and would love to help them but are stopped as their religion thinks that it would be good for them if they sacrifice an animal. As I am an atheist I thought of religion as a waste of time but towards end of my report I realize that religion is very important for people, they respect it as much as they respect their elders. Although the society isn’t taking major steps for the betterment of animals, I believe in five years’ time animal sacrifice and slaughter will come to a maximum stop.