Hindu Sacrifice of 250,000 animals begin

[Historian]

I always enjoy reading about these sorts of things from a variety of different news sources.  For instance, The Hindu estimates 3 to 5 hundred thousand animals will be sacrificed, and reports that about 80% of the people who attend the festival will travel from India.   

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/internatio...e53883.ece


I first heard about this practice from Hindu friends, and since then I've followed the debate with interest.  If I understand correctly, part of this is a caste issue as well - the lower castes still participate in these types of activities, whereas the upper caste Hindus tend not to.  Marc alluded to that a bit.

Most of the Hindus I have known tend to agree with this line of argument:

http://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/04/though...ce-in.html

Another similar view from a mainstream Indian newspaper:

http://www.hindu.com/op/2003/09/16/stori...290300.htm