On the weekend before Eidul Azha, the festival of sacrifice, a video surfaced on social media of a camel with one of its forelegs chopped off.

The camel had wandered on to the land of a local landlord, who is believed to have ordered the barbaric act as a way to teach a lesson to its owner. The video of the maimed animal triggered a widespread outcry, forcing the police in Sindh’s Sanghar district to take action against those involved.

It also saw various animal rescue organisations spring into action, with the camel shifted to one shelter in Karachi, and efforts said to be afoot to get it a prosthetic limb.

The camel’s fate was still better than that of a donkey in Hyderabad, who was so badly beaten by its owner, it ended up with multiple fractures. The hapless equine died at a shelter in Karachi last week.

The situation is worse for stray animals, often targeted with mass cullings and poisoning, including by ‘concerned’ neighbours and systemically by various city departments, under the guise of “keeping the streets safe for pedestrians.”

The barbaric mutilation of a camel a few weeks ago shows that animal welfare remains an afterthought in Pakistan, with outdated laws no deterrent against wanton acts of cruelty

The last such mass culling drive was carried out by a municipal department in Karachi last year. But several activists, including Ayesha Chundrigar — who runs the eponymously-named animal rescue service and shelter in Karachi — says her shelter continues to receive and treat stray dogs that have been poisoned, and there are reports of dogs being poisoned across the country.

The social media feed of her shelter, as well as that of dozens of others that have popped up over the last several years, are filled with horrific stories of animals being mistreated.

From stray dogs being pelted with stones and puppies tossed from rooftops, to cats and kittens being tortured, there is ample evidence of this wanton violence towards voiceless animals in Pakistani society. Some of those responsible for this callousness are children.

But we don’t need social media for that reminder. One look at the condition of the street animals in Pakistan is enough. Most of these animals are insufficiently fed, often brutally treated, unkempt and injured.

LEGAL LABYRINTH

In Pakistan, the state does not have any animal welfare policy or service in place, with the sterilisation and vaccination campaigns advocated by animal rights activists extremely sporadic. The cause of animal welfare is being championed primarily by private individuals and collectives.

One such effort is a Facebook page, called ‘Lost And Found Pets & Helping Desk Pakistan.’ It serves three functions: to unite lost pets with their owners, to report any case of animals requiring rescue, and to spread awareness on animal welfare.

Through their supporters, such digital initiatives create a snowball effect on news regarding animal cruelty, which is then covered by the national media and, as a result, the authorities are compelled to take action.

But it’s a tall order, considering Pakistan’s limited and outdated laws on preventing animal cruelty, combined with a state apparatus that is often more than willing to collude with the perpetrators of such violence.

This is visible in the case of the mutilated camel, with the owner telling the judicial magistrate in Sanghar that the police were trying to save the main suspect and had not even included his name in the first information report (FIR).

The most prominent law for animal protection is the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1890), a law inherited from the pre-Partition British era. The parameters within which the act is defined are limited in scope and lack recent shifts in understanding of animal welfare.

For instance, the law defines animals as “domestic” or “captured”. This excludes birds and strays as well as wildlife, although provinces have specific laws pertaining to that. Moreover, the law identifies penalties for cruelty to animals, such as overworking, beating or subjecting the animal to unnecessary pain.

But these terms are vaguely defined, points out Altamush Saeed, who did his masters in animal law from the US. “There is no baseline for ‘unnecessary pain’, so it cannot be determined or the law implemented,” he tells Eos.

The federal government did pass a law in 2018, increasing the fines for animal cruelty. It increased the maximum fine to Rs100,000 for animal cruelty, which had remained at the Rs50 level since the law was first passed in 1890, for first-time offenders. The minimum fine was raised to Rs10,000. There was a similar increase in fines for other offences against animals.

However, the law is only applicable in the federal capital, and does not extend to the rest of Pakistan. This is because animal welfare became a provincial subject after the 18th Amendment, and provinces are required to enact their own laws.

That is yet to happen, resulting in punishment for offences against animals in the rest of Pakistan staying the same as they were under the 1890 law.

One fillip for animal activists was when, in April 2020, the Islamabad High Court affirmed that animals have legal rights under the Constitution of Pakistan. The court also ordered shut a zoo in Islamabad, with the animals moved to sanctuaries.

IN NEED OF SAFE HAVENS

Activists point out that while street animals have it tough, even domestic pets can share the same fate at the hands of humans. There are many stories of pets abandoned by their human families. One such sad story is of a Persian cat that arrived at a shelter in Lahore. The cat was abandoned by its human family after it developed urinary blockage and kidney stones.

But managing a shelter and a rescue service is costly, as the animals require food, medical attention and safe spaces. Most shelters have limited funds, though they have adopted novel crowdsourcing techniques, such as sponsor-a-pet programmes.

But even so, raising resources can be a challenge.

Nadia Hassan, who runs a shelter and rescue service in Lahore, tells Eos that their plans depend on such funds and it becomes a problem when people don’t provide the funds they have promised.

She says, sometimes, people even refuse to wait with an injured animal after calling their rescue service. “They think they have done their moral duty.”

With limited staff and often reliant on volunteers, such shelters and rescue services are also sometimes accused of delayed responses to the donors, who have the right to follow up with these organisations. There have also been complaints, including against prominent shelters, of not permitting visitors or taking in more animals because of space constraints.

Sarah Jahangir, who runs the shelter where the maimed camel is under treatment, says people tend to get excitable around the animals, when they need to stay calm, which could be one reason for shelters keeping visitors to a minimum. Her shelter in Karachi, she tells Eos, allows visits on only two days in a week.

Similarly, she says it’s impossible for rescue services to take in all the animals, as they need space and money, which are already stretched.

The shelter that Sarah runs is spread over two acres and employs 21 people, with monthly operational costs around two million rupees. “We raise half of that amount through our sponsor-a-pet programme, and for the rest, we have to literally beg,” she says.

Despite the challenges, Sarah says they continue to take in more animals. For her, kindness towards animals is not only for their welfare, but also a reflection of our values as a society.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATION

There is ample research which shows that abnormal behaviour towards animals requires immediate attention, especially from clinicians. Studies suggest that there may be links between animal cruelty and later aggression or violence towards humans, as well as other problematic behaviours.

One such research, conducted by Laura Wauthier of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, states that animal cruelty in children or adolescents can be an early indicator of potential future violent behaviour.

Alternatively, there is an equally copious amount of scientific literature which consistently shows that animals have a profound and positive impact on human life, enhancing physical health, mental well-being and social interactions, and providing therapeutic benefits.

The integration of animals into various aspects of human life, from healthcare to social support, underscores their invaluable role in promoting overall health and well-being in society.

The writer is an assistant professor at the School of Communication Studies of the University of Punjab in Lahore

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 30th, 2024