Unapologetic Animal Cruelty in Pakistan| News and Media| Updated June 29 2024
Scrolling through social media, we see a fresh case of animal abuse every now and then. We get disheartened, express our outrage perhaps, and scroll away to the next post, until a new day brings to us yet another brutal case. Despite many renowned activists working tirelessly to prevent animal cruelty, or rehabilitate abused animals, the matter persists most gruesomely.
Long-standing laws like “The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act” of 1890 (which only applied to domestic animals), or the recent animal welfare reforms introduced (which are more comprehensive), are all well and good, and we have seen relatively more crackdown against animal abusers in the recent years, especially with the 1819 hotline to report cases of abuse. The efforts of Justice Minallah in 2021 on animal well-being, in his ruling on the case of Kaavan (the abused elephant), are admirable. Animal shelters in the twin cities, Lahore, Karachi and other cities are doing commendable work to protect animals. Yet, within a week, we heard two separate cases of animals having their limbs chopped off by landlords. A camel, grazing in the fields in Sanghar district, and a donkey somewhere in Hyderabad, faced this brutality. Previously we heard of a dog being thrown from the roof by a man in Liaquatabad. Such news are weekly headlines.
The more important question to ask here is not why there aren’t enough laws or crackdowns against animal abusers, but why in fact, do people become animal abusers? Why are most people in Pakistan sensitized to the cruelty around animals? Why do most of our children not know kindness when handling or playing with animals? Do we not realize that cruelty in any shape and form, expressed towards anyone or anything, remains still a dark deed? If one finds in oneself the ability to impart pain, then does it really matter who/what is the recipient of this pain? Children who are turned a blind eye to when they snatch the fur on kittens when playing, or plucking feathers of a caged bird, or smacking a pet bunny and enjoying their painful reaction, these are the children that grow up and turn into heartless animal abusers. So, perhaps our society has failed in creating awareness at a grassroot level, from day one. Perhaps we have been wired to believe that it isn’t our duty to spread awareness and educate people, when we see animals being abused. Let’s say a donkey being beaten on the roadside, or a cage of sparrows caught to be released for money, or a chained monkey forced to perform acts, or our neighbor’s child beating their pet cat etc. Brutality, of any sort, is better prevented than punished. And it is through collective action that we must reshape the definition of ethics of our people, make kinder individuals out of our children, and eradicate violent acts, of all kinds, from our society.
The culture of zoos and confinement of exotic animals is a colonial trend that we must snap out of, especially since the conditions of zoos in Pakistan, a country always on the verge of economic ruin, are deplorable. Licenses to acquire exotic pets should be completely curbed. Animals of the vast jungle, physiologically designed to run free for miles and hunt live prey each day, being kept in a cage of few feet and flashed with cameras, is a disgrace to nature. Other than this, we observe many cases of violence against animals arising out of anger of humans. This extremely damaging habit of expressing unchecked anger or emotion upon animals, whether it is cutting off a camel’s leg, or raping a kitten, must be addressed at a more serious level, since these cases are not isolated, they are an increasing occurrence. A sense of empathy needs to be inculcated in the public regarding all life forms, through educational institutes, home-parenting, advertisements, or guiding through actions.
Animal testing, over-laboring of animals, under-maintained shops selling animals/pets for profit are separate matters from the above-mentioned category of abuse, since the motivations behind these do not root from a place of hatred or ill-psyche, but from greed and desperation. Abuses like these can best be handled by law-enforcement authorities and strict policies.
Violence and abuse of any form has the capacity to grow exponentially. Pakistan is a country with an increasingly intolerant population. We do not have empathy for species that are not us, within our own species, we do not have empathy for religions that aren’t ours, within our religion, we do not tolerate belief-systems that aren’t similar to ours. Hence, acts of cruelty must be addressed, not just legally and lawfully, but academically, systematically and psychologically.