All veterinarians and animal lovers in the city are requested to attend the event.

To raise awareness of sufferings in working animals and recognising their services, the Brooke in collaboration with Richmond Crawford Veterinary Hospital, Karachi, organized two events to celebrate World animal Day 2008 on Thursday.

More here.

Programme:

1000 – 1005 Recitation of the Quran
1005 – 1010 Importance of the WAD
1010 - 1020 Cruelty to animals is bad
1020 - 1030 Animal compassion
1030 - 1035 Importance of working equines in earning livelihoods
1035 - 1040 Qualities of a responsible equine owners
1040 - 1100 Skit by TOSP children
1100 – 1115 Walk to highlight the equine welfare
1115 – 1145 Lunch

The following is a message from the CEO of Brooke (Pakistan), Muhammad Farooq Malik:

World animal day (WAD) is celebrated on the Forth of October every year. The main objectives are:

1. to celebrate animal life in all its forms
2. to celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom
3. to acknowledge the diverse the animals play in our lives – from being our companions, supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives
4. to acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives

Be a part of something special – by getting involved in celebrating the World Animal Day 2008.

Pakistan has 4.7 million horses, donkeys and mules (equines). About 95% of the population consists of working animals. Donkeys consist of 90% of the total population. A donkey is also called the poor man’s horse. The working equines are mainly used for transporting people and goods in urban, peri-urban and rural areas and are the lifeline in our local transportation system and thus earn the livelihood for millions of people. Ever increasing prices of fuel and essential commodities has brought these animals back into business. According to authentic surveys 6 - 8 people are dependant on one working animal.

The Brooke (Pakistan) being the largest animal welfare organization in Pakistan works primarily with these working animals and their owners by providing free treatment and empowering people in preventative husbandry services. The Brooke is currently operating in 12 districts of Pakistan and covering all the four provinces.

The Brooke along with the cooperation of its partners namely Livestock and Fisheries Department, Govt. of Sindh, and the Theosophical Order of Services, Pakistan is organising to celebrate the World Animal Day in Karachi. We are also being helped by Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) an NGO with a similar mission.

You are cordially invited to join us and promote the cause to minimize sufferings in working animals and recognizing the services given by these defenceless and adorable creatures.

Thank you in anticipation

Sincerely yours

(Muhammad Farooq Malik)
Chief Executive Officer

Please come and join us at the World Animal Day activities and forward this to your friends, family and colleagues.

As I was about to start my daily chores on the morning of Thursday, October 10, I was interrupted by my wildly anxious maid who informed me that a lion had escaped and was roaming around Seaview. Lion? I thought, how was that possible? I brushed her aside with my total incomprehension of what was going on. She was insistent that I go and have a look. The media was there, she said, and about a hundred people had gathered behind our house, including police vans.

I caught hold of my next door neighbour, who by now was already at my door and we went onto the roof to have a look. Surely it looked pretty chaotic down there with people running here and there. I could see a few people with sticks trying to beat some bushes close to the block of flats behind us. By now what I was more worried about was that whatever wild animal they were looking for must be long gone and searching in one small area was useless. Plus I was afraid for the animal. I was sure that understandably everyone was ready to shoot and kill it without thinking twice. My daughter went down first to see what was going on and informed the SHO of the Darakshan Police station present there, that it should not be shot and they should make an effort to try and find it. By then I had already contacted a friend of mine, Mahera Omar (co-founder of PAWS) and informed her. She got in touch with the Zoo Director, one of the only people that has a tranquilizer gun (there is one more I later found out) and he said he was on his way. Then I went down to investigate. I approached the SHO and a lady who had seen the cat in the morning; plus a whole lot of media people and concerned citizens. A driver working in my block had also seen it in the morning in front of my block of flats. Anxiety and confusion was abound. What kind of cat was it - a lion, tiger? All pretty scary thoughts. This was a serious situation. It was nearly one in the afternoon and what I had thought of earlier came to mind again. They will never find it like this. The Zoo Director eventually arrived with an assistant who carried a tranquilizer gun and joined the party – journalists and helpers alike.

The commotion had calmed down to some extent when a neighbour of the block behind us, worried about his small children, had taken the initiative (he had called the cops and the Sindh Wildlife Department.) and went to see for himself. It seems he was tipped off that the cat was probably owned by a couple who lived in Block 57 and it had allegedly escaped. It seems that it had been missing for two months and a complaint had been lodged with the CPLC at that time. I found it so strange that nothing had been done about it and worse so that no one had been aware of it before this. Incompetence or sheer ignorance was the name of the game as I had already envisaged when I was looking at the scene from my roof. He had, along with a few policemen confronted the couple. He observed two more such cats, which were identified as fishing cats later, confined in a small rusty cage in their garden. The owners admitted that one had escaped two months ago. Fishing cats look like bigger versions of the domestic cat; but are a sub-species of the leopard. They are indigenous to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and live in swampy areas like mangroves with fish as their diet mostly. Was this legal, and more so wasn’t this cruel to confine three wild cats in a small cage and be so careless for such a thing to have happened?

The fire department had been alerted also, by whom I don’t know, but when I got there it seems that a fire had been started to try and smoke the cat out. It seemed so ridiculous confining themselves to one particular area, when surely the cat must have tried to get away as far as possible from so many people. The media was hungry for a story but it was blazing hot and after a couple of hours they all gave up. What should have been done was to send out small search parties immediately in different directions. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task to catch a cat, which can easily slip away and not be noticed in such a vast area that Seaview is located in, where bushes and shrubbery abounds. Some people suggested traps be put out to catch the cat, but then, is any organization willing to do so?

So, true or not, rumour has it that a wild cat is loose in Seaview and the residents are very afraid. If anyone spots a wild cat in their neighbourhood, they should immediately contact the Sindh Wildlife Department at 9204952 and report the sighting. Children especially, should be told not to approach it. Wild animals do not attack accept when provoked or taunted but we must respect the fact that it is a wild animal and one should be careful. Someone said plans are afoot to place traps with bait to capture it. I just hope that happens. One commendable outcome of this whole saga is that they have confiscated the cats and they are now in the custody of the Karachi Zoo, thanks to the timely action of the Sindh Wildlife Department. This is really good news. At the end, I was glad that this incident had media coverage and hopefully it has touched some hearts enough to speak up and do something, in their own tiny way, to alleviate the plight of animals and expose the illegal trade of animals that is rampant in this country. The more awareness created for the love of animals and endangered species indigenous to our country, the better.

APROPOS of the letter, ‘Dwindling victoria carts‘ (Sept 8), writer Seema Khanum Pashamby lamented the disappearance of horse-drawn carts from Karachi’s marketplace. It seems Ms Pashamby was not thinking in the interest of animals when she wrote those lines.

We often tend to moan and groan at the demise of some of our traditions, but in fact not all traditions are good traditions. It is a good thing that our increased ethical values and advancement in technology are resulting in the abolishment of the exploitation and suffering of animals.

Speciesism, a prejudice against other species, is not different from racism or sexism that we abhor today. To my knowledge, no one has said it better than the great African American feminist writer, Alice Walker, “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.”

I have every hope that today’s norm of animal exploitation will be a thing of the past just as slavery and subjugation of women no longer is considered a norm today.

Syed is the President and Founder of Engineers and Scientists for Animal Rights (ESAR) and a board member of animalsandsociety.org in the USA.