I was appalled to learn that live animals are stuffed into pinatas and bashed to death by a violent mob every year at the Kots Kaal Pato festival in Citilcum, Yucatan. This bloody tradition must end.

The day before the festival, local children catch possums, lizards, cats and other innocent animals, considered "vermin" by the townspeople. The live animals are put inside pinatas, and at the festival contestants take turns beating the pinatas with a wooden stick. If the animals manage to survive the beating, the townspeople grab them and "throw them to the air, kick or trample them to death," according to The Yucutan Times.

As if this weren't cruel enough, the highlight of the festival is the brutal killing of a duck, who is hung upside down by its legs. Village youth take turns jumping up to grab the bird's head and attempt to rip it off.

Throughout the brutal event, the crowd laughs and cheers, applauding the torture of these animals.

This gruesome festival is shockingly cruel and has no place in modern society. I urge you to address this at once, and outlaw the Kots Kaal Pato festival so that no more animals suffer this horrifying torture.