In the wake of hated China's Dog Meat Festival back in June or Cecil the Lion's death just days ago at the hands of a thrill-seeking dentist, we're jumping for joy at the news of a Nepalese festival, Gadhimai Mela, deciding to cease its mass slaughter of animals despite it being a centuries-old Hindu tradition.

According to Hindustantimes.com, Motilal Prasad, the Secretary of the Gadhimai Temple Trust, said  "We have decided to completely stop the practice of animal sacrifice." The Trust organizes the celebrations.

He continued, "I realized that animals are so much like us – they have the same organs as us...and feel the same pain we do."

The festival is held every five years and centers around the mass slaughter of thousands of animals in order to appease Hindu gods in exchange for health and happiness. Thousands of attendees from Nepal and India flock to a temple in the Himalayan nation's southern plains to watch animals like goats and cows be offered to deities. Last November, the most recent Gadhimai festival saw 2.5 million worshipers gather to sacrifice an estimated 200,000 animals, according to Hindustantimes.com.

Prasad also said, "It won't be easy to end a 400-year-old custom...but we have four years to convince people that they don't need to sacrifice animals to please the goddess," Prasad said. "I am very hopeful that we will see a bloodless festival in 2019."

It has taken years of lobbying for animal rights activists but it finally made waves. The campaign attracted support from celebrities including French movie legend Brigitte Bardot. Finally, a much-needed come up for animals.

The festival's origins are mystical. The first sacrifices were conducted several centuries ago when Gadhimai appeared to a prisoner in a dream and asked him to establish a temple to her. When he woke up, his hand cuffs had fallen open and he was able to leave the prison and build the temple, where he sacrificed animals to thank the goddesses.