To celebrate Bail Pola, people traditionally decorate their bullocks by rasping their horns, which can expose the nerves and cause pain, and coloring them with toxic powders or paint, which can cause horn cancer. But through vigorous educational outreach, we kept this from happening to hundreds of bullocks in local villages.

We also won two exciting victories by stopping annual buffalo-slaughter rituals at religious festivals in the villages of Gondhalewadi and Sanjay Nagar. These rituals have taken place for the past several decades (the one in Gondhalewadi has happened annually for 150 years), but after meeting with Animal Rahat and local police officers who supported our position, village leaders pledged to ban them from now on!

In more good news, we made substantial inroads regarding the annual goddess festival known as the Chinchali Fair. As you know, our goal is to prevent the suffering of thousands of bullocks and horses who are forced to pull cartloads of families as far as 200 miles to the fair (and back) and suffer from beatings, dehydration, and severe injuries along the way. This past month, we had very productive meetings with priests of the Dhangar community. They agreed to explain to their followers that animal suffering does not please the goddess Mayakka Devi, in whose honor the festival is held—and to advise attendees to leave their animals at home and go to the fair via the buses that Animal Rahat arranges each year. We’re optimistic that hearing this message from their priests will make a huge impact on worshippers and greatly reduce the use of animals at next year’s fair.