The Problem of Animal Exploitation in Pakistan
I grew up in an animal enthusiast family. My father raised us alongside a number of animals which included dogs, cats, rabbits, partridges and many more. In fact, there was one instance where my father and I brought home an abandoned donkey to which my mother obviously wasn’t very pleased. She said I quote “it’s either me or the donkey”. So, we eventually had to drop the donkey off to a local sanctuary.
Today I run a business where I provide several services for pets. Apart from this, I have worked with numerous organizations rescuing and spreading awareness about animals such as Animal Care Association Pakistan and HWO animal rescue. Therefore, I would like to talk about animal exploitation in Pakistan as most of us are unaware of the everyday trials of our animal kind. Animal Exploitation refers to making use of animals for the benefit of humans without taking care of the well-being of these animals. According to the AARDAS (Animal Abuse Database Administration System) the four major causes of animals’ deaths include neglect, shooting, hoarding and fighting, followed by torture and mutation.
Every day, hundreds of animals are hurt, killed or left to die in the streets. Life at brick kilns is undoubtedly hard for people. According to the Brooke, the number of animals working in brick kilns of Pakistan amount to 115,000 that include Donkeys, Mules and Horses. These animals are usually used for carrying bricks that total to 45,000-50,000 per day and other materials within the kilns and to external locations for use in the construction industry. This is done under extreme conditions which makes the animal suffer serious health issues as well as injuries due to temperatures, lack of shade, difficult terrain and overloading.
Not only are these animals worked up under extreme conditions, they are also not looked after. Just outside the vicinity of our campus, I had been seeing a horse on and off that was badly infected, skin and bones. I finally picked up my phone and contacted one of the members of ACF (Ayesha Chandigarh Foundation) who were very supportive. We went looking for that horse only to find out that it was at work with its owner. We discovered that the horse was at work until 3 pm after which the horse was left to go around feed itself. When we approached the owner in order to talk to him to get his horse treated, he said that he was not ready to spend on the horse and was waiting for it to die so he could sell the horse hide for a good sum of money. We however convinced him to sell the horse to us instead and he agreed on Rupees forty-five thousand. That one horse got lucky and is under treatment to date, numbers of animals are left to rot like this, every day.
In the urban areas of Pakistan, dog and rooster fighting is a common sport especially in interior Punjab and KPK. These animals are raised and trained to fight one another and their masters place bets on these fights. Easily lasting an hour, by the end of it the dogs have horrifying injuries: torn ears, ruptured windpipes, gouged out eyes and bitten tongues. If the master of the losing dog stops the fight in between, he will bash his dog with a hockey stick, electrocute it, poison it or just drown it with its legs tied.
Another alarming factor is that people who sell animals in the market keep them in unhealthy conditions like that of Empress market, Lahore where various animals as young as a few weeks old cry all day long for the sanctuary of their mothers. The cages are packed with kittens, chicks and puppies so much so that there is no room for proper ventilation. Many of the shops have secret chambers where emaciated baby jackals, partridges, owls and other exotic animals are kept without a morsel of food and water. The Sindh Wildlife Department has raided their shops several times. However, this network of animal shopkeepers is so strong that the minute the inspection team enters Empress Market, everything ‘illegal’ is either gone or hidden.
Animal breeding is one major problem in our country. Inbreeding causes painful and life-threatening genetic defects in dogs and cats, including crippling hip dysplasia, blindness, deafness, heart defects, skin problems, and epilepsy. Distorting animals for specific physical features also cause severe health problems. The short, pushed-in noses of bulldogs and pugs, for example, can make exercise and even normal breathing difficult for these animals. Dachshunds’ unnaturally long spinal columns often cause back problems, including disc disease. These breeders do not care about the health of the animal and often when their puppies and kittens are not up to the standard, they are known to inhumanely kill unsold or imperfect puppies using methods such as drowning and even burying them alive.
An aspect that keeps this cycle of animal abuse running is the fact that most of us believe that in a country where human rights are nonexistent, talking about animal rights is an unpardonable offence. People who exploit animals continue to do so because there is no penalty or any consequences for their actions.
In conlusion, I refuse to believe that our country is dominated by people who are unkind to animals. It is just that the majority, which loves animals has unfortunately become apathetic. We must understand that if we’re not kind to animals, we are a long way from being kind to people. The plight of these animals deserves to be heard, so let’s give them a voice.
Unless we develop a sense of protecting animals and criticize people who are cruel towards them, the vicious cycle of exploitation will never break. Reporting to the authorities might appear to be an exercise in vain; however, it is important to bring animal exploitation in the notice of people who are in position to help.
