WHILE thousands of animals have already been slaughtered, many questions remain unanswered. The public has yet to be clearly informed about the central — and simplest — point: were the 22,000 Australian sheep, which were originally bound for Bahrain but ended up in Karachi in early September, diseased? If so, what disease was it? All we’ve had so far is several weeks of confusion, obfuscation and conflicting explanations from all the central characters in the drama. The health hazards being talked about have ranged from foot-and-mouth disease to anthrax to Orf disease. The charade ended over the weekend when the importer — for reasons unknown — withdrew his court petition against the culling and the Sindh livestock department finished off the reportedly 11,000 animals that had so far survived.

This episode has thrown into stark relief two different issues that should be of concern. First, the inhumane treatment of the animals. As culling progressed in bouts, reports surfaced that some animals were clubbed to death or stabbed, left bleeding to die or buried alive — perhaps a sign of the manner in which Pakistani society is becoming increasing brutal. Second, the system in place needs to be revamped to ensure that everything that enters the market is indeed fit for human consumption. The flaws in the system can be gauged from the fact that conflicting findings resulted from the tests conducted at provincial- and federal-level laboratories. It was eventually a UK lab that said that the animals were healthy — though local authorities now claim that the foreign lab never tested for the diseases that the provincial health authorities had suspected. If so, why were the sheep not quarantined on arrival, as required? Without following the systems that are in place, Pakistan will continue to court all manner of public health disasters.