Sacrifice not required

From the Tanakh (Hebrew scriptures):

[22] Yea, though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. [23] Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; and let Me not hear the melody of thy psalteries. [24] But let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. ~ Amos 5:24

From the Wiccan tradition:

I am the Gracious Goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart. Upon earth, I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal; and beyond death, I give peace, and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand sacrifice, for behold I am the Mother of All Living, and my love is poured out upon the earth.
~ The Charge of the Goddess, Doreen Valiente

From the Hindu tradition:

Offer to Goddess Durga the animal, the Pashu, of your inner evil trait of passion, of anger, of greed. Do not kill animals of the external world in the name of Balidana to the Goddess.

She wants your animal-man within. No Himsa should be committed on the excuse that it is for the Devi. You have no right or justification to hurt any living creature for whatever reason.

Ahimsa should be free from all exemptions whether pertaining to class, place, time or circumstances. Ahimsa is a universal vow to be practiced absolutely. No worship, no prayer, no act whatsoever in life can justify injury or harm done to living beings.
~ Swami Sivananda

The Buddha was also against animal sacrifice.

Gadhimai Mela

I don't usually disagree with Jason at the Wild Hunt, but on this occasion I have to disagree.

Yes, it's true that it's hypocritical that people get worked up about animal sacrifice in general but not about factory farming, millions of turkeys being killed for Christmas or Thanksgiving, cruelty in slaughterhouses, and so on. Most sacrifices are probably carried out fairly humanely, with the minimum of suffering to the animal.

But the animal welfare campaigners are campaigning on many issues (including factory farming), not just the mass sacrifice.

And Gadhimai Mela is a mass sacrifice that is not carried out humanely.

According to the Humane Society, the animals are not killed humanely - hence the reason for the protest:

"Cruelly, the animals are chased and hacked to death with knives in a competition to kill as many as possible within two days."

Here's an account by a Nepalese eye-witness of the event (takes a while to load, but should be read):

The sword-bearers cannot chop off the buffaloes' heads at one go because of the thick size of its necks. To make their task easier, the hackers first cut the buffaloes’ hind legs after which the animal falls on the ground. They then start hacking the neck until the head is separated from the body. It takes 20 to 25 swing of the sword to annihilate a big buffalo. The suffering the animals go through is unimaginable.

After witnessing the Gadhimai carnage, I started having terrible nightmares. I would see blood wherever I turned to look.

This is not on the same scale as the sacrifice of the occasional chicken in Santeria, where the chicken gets eaten.

Three to four days after the massacre, people start fleeing the Gadhimai venue because of the nauseating smell that starts to emit. Cars, rickshaws and cyclist start taking alternative routes. It is the people living in nearby localities who suffer the most. While the temple area turns into a breeding ground for disease, many fall sick. It takes months for the smell to go away.

That does not imply to me that all the meat from the slaughter at Gadhimai Mela gets eaten.