Begusarai Durga temple gets PETA award

PATNA: An 700-year-old Hindu temple dedicated to Goddess Durga in Begusarai has won a rare award from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), world’s largest NGO fighting for animal rights, for abolishing the 700-year-old custom of animal sacrifice.
The temple located in Bhagwanpur block of Begusarai district had performed the ritual since worship began there.
According to the villagers, the statue of Goddess Durga was brought here from Nadia district in West Bengal some 700 years ago and was being worshipped as ‘Kul Devi’ with typical Bengali rituals. Since then, none dared to stop this practice fearing untoward incidents.This year, however, the Maa Durga Temple Pushpalata Ghosh Charitable Trust which runs the temple decided to do away with the century-old practice of animal sacrifice which has won wide appreciation from PETA.
“No religion endorses slaughter of animals, and chopping animals to death is cruel. All religion encourage compassion,” a temple official said, describing it as a welcome change.
As an acknowledgement of the great initiative, PETA India has now given the ‘Progressive Institution Award’, to Maa Durga Temple here.