On castrated and uncastrated goats

The story goes something like this:

Years ago, my professor's partner flew into Kathmandu to visit her. It was around the 9th day of Dashain. As he got off the plane, his first image was of a group of men furiously masturbating a goat, which they then proceeded to kill by slicing its head off, splattering its blood all over the plane.

Lauren recently told me this story about one of our professors - I assume it was just the wheels of the plane they splattered with blood.

Today, my Nepali teacher informed me, Hindus would start sacrificing animals as part of the Dashain festivities. This BBC article from 3 years ago talks about the cruelty of the practice. While goats are the most common offerings, other animals such as ducks, chickens, pigs and water buffaloes are also sacrificed. The most important thing is that all sacrificed animals be male and uncastrated (so hooray if you're an animal eunuch).

Male castrated goats are called खसी khasi in Nepali, while their uncastrated counterparts are called बोका boka. For a while, I assumed that castrated goats were the ones that were sacrificed, since young castrated male livestock grow to be bigger and yield more meat. However, I just learned today that khasi are the ones used for meat (which makes sense), while boka are reserved for sacrifice (although their meat is usually still eaten afterwards). Wikipedia tells me that castrated animals were excluded from sacrifice in ancient Judaism, as they were seen as being unwhole. I'm not sure if this is the same reason why Hindus here don't sacrifice castrated animals.

So what does this have to do with the men masturbating the poor goat? Nothing I assume, since even castrated goats can reach orgasm. But since appeasing Durga during Dashain is about maximum bloodletting, an excited goat is going to be pumping a lot more blood through its arteries than a calm relaxed one.

Oh, and here's the goat that was in the garden the other day. Haven't seen it since Tuesday...