“Why waste time on animal rights when humans don’t get their rights here?” is the usual response to the idea of animal welfare or animal rights in Pakistan. Meanwhile, animal lovers and activists strive to change the mindset that makes both these issues mutually exclusive.

More here.

PAWS partnered with Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) to identify 68 beneficiaries in 22 villages of District Jamshoro in Sindh. These beneficiaries were widowed women who were heads of their households. The gift of a goat provided them with ongoing income for their families through the sale of milk, ghee, meat and kids, as well as supplemented their own diet and agriculture.

Funding for the project was made possible through generous donations by individuals to PAWS. The goats were procured by TRDP through a purchasing committee which sought quotations, evaluated them and purchased from the lowest bidder. A veterinary doctor verified the health of the goats, after which TRDP delivered the goats to the recipients along with fodder for two months.

In return the women agreed to report about the health of their goats in their monthly village meetings, and promised to get their children enrolled in school from the additional income generated. They also agreed to not sell their goats for at least a year.

A detailed report from TRDP is online here:

Trdp Paws Report

Link to the campaign is up here.

As a result of the success of this campaign, and in light of the additional flooding of 2011 caused by torrential rains, PAWS has decided to make this a year-long collection. You may make a goat donation here.

Who was Richmond Crawford? Who was Lady Nanette Constantine? What is PAWS? Well, all of them have one thing in common. They were/are fond of animals and represent different generations which carried the flag for our ‘agreeable friends’ in Karachi. Let’s talk about them one by one.

More here.

The most important thing to know about spaying and neutering is that it saves lives. In every community in every U.S. state, there are animals sitting in animal shelters waiting for homes. Only about half of those dogs and cats will ever get one. The other half will be euthanized.
Making the decision to spay or neuter your pet means fewer pets—pets as sweet, loving, healthy, and deserving of companionship as your own—will be euthanized for lack of a home.

More here.

KARACHI: The Karachi zoo will be cleaned and renovated after this Ashura, announced Shaukat Zaman, a health director, on Saturday. He had gone to inspect the zoo, along with the zoo’s director, Mazhar Khan, on the directives of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed.

Meeting called by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation
Karachi Zoo Management
District Commissioner House, Karachi
Thursday, December 1, 2011

Participants:

KMC Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed (MHS)

Dr. Kazim Hussain
Veterinarian and Acting Director, Karachi Zoo

Uzma Khan (UK)
Member, Management Committee, Lahore Zoo
Biodiversity Director, World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Pakistan)

Rab Nawaz (RN)
Director, Indus Ecoregion Programme, World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Pakistan)

Umeed Khalid
Conservator Wildlife, National Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW)

Mahera Omar (MO)
Maheen Zia (MZ)
Co-Founders, Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)

Madiha Javed (MJ)
Express Television

Minutes of the Meeting:

A management committee for the Karachi Zoo will be set up to oversee its policy matters and finances. The zoo should be an independent body with its own Board of Directors. Currently, it is under the management of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, and so does not have the authority in the running of its own affairs. The zoo also needs a full-time director as it is the veterinarian who is filling in as director temporarily. A consultant can be hired to make plans for upgrading the facilities at the zoo. (MHS)

It is important to understand why zoos exist in the first place. Their role is education, and not conservation. WWF can help Karachi Zoo set up an education program which would include developing educational materials and providing training for its staff. Generally, the Karachi Zoo is considered to be more of a picnic spot, with no emphasis on creating awareness about the importance of conserving wildlife in their own habitats. WWF would be happy to hire an education officer for the zoo. The Lahore Zoo and Safari have a master plan. There is a need to develop such a vision for the Karachi Zoo as well. (UK)

We should focus on local species and try to create more awareness about their conservation, rather than acquiring more and more foreign species. In addition, any animal that is acquired must be from one zoo to another, and not from an animal dealer. (RN)

Last year the zoo earned an income of Rupees 2 crore and 30 lakhs. But since the funds are not under the zoo’s control, it’s requirements are not able to be fulfilled. (KH)

Lahore Zoo has its own bank account. There is transparency in their management since the committee has to approve any expenditure before the funds are utilized. Once such a system is in place in Karachi as well, then one can move forward with better zoo management. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) provides guidelines and support to zoos about “animal care and welfare, conservation of biodiversity, environmental education and global sustainability”. Members of the WAZA network are obliged to comply with their code of ethics, and such an organisation is a great resource for the Karachi Zoo. (UK)

The National Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW) is responsible for issuing No Objection Certificates before any private party trade in wildlife. Certain international conventions, such as CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, aims to ensure that “international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.” Pakistan is a signatory to this convention, and therefore must not illegally acquire animals from the wild for any of its zoos. (Umeed Khalid)

In an ideal world, there would be no zoos. Wild animals belong in the wild and not meant to lead a life in captivity. Captive animals, especially those kept in inhumane conditions, send a wrong message to zoo visitors. This message is enforced most strongly amongst young children, who then grow up to believe its okay to cage wild animals. A prime example is the barren, tiled enclosures of the indigenous fishing cats that are kept in solitary confinement. Their enclosures bear no resemblance to their natural wetland habitat. The focus of being able to see wild animals up close should be on the importance of protecting their original habitats, which are fast depleting in Pakistan. Capturing wild animals from their natural habitats, and separating the young from their mothers, as in the case of the 4 baby elephants, is another practice which the Karachi Zoo must not condone. (MZ)

It is important to use this opportunity to introduce better zoo management practices and upgrade the existing facilities, so that the right kind of message be sent out to our future generations. At the same time, it is also important to remember our city animals and revive the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), so that the system of animal inspectors is once again initiated and a humane stray dog management strategy is implemented. (MO)

Not every initiative requires funds. Social media, such as facebook, can be used to engage the public and create awareness about protecting wild animals and their habitats. Learning from the successful example of the Mohatta Palace Museum, perhaps the Karachi Zoo could also be managed as a public-private sector partnership. (MJ)

It was jointly decided that a follow up meeting will be held soon.

Earlier this year, a group of medical and veterinary doctors set out from Karachi for an overnight medical camp to Khorwah in district Badin, Sindh. The group included doctors, veterinarians and volunteers from the 4X4 Offroaders Club and the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society, who were selfless in their efforts to give back to a community.

We arrived in Khorwah in the late afternoon, and while the medical team set up camp at the farmhouse, veterinary student Ali and local livestock assistant Ali Nawaz went to the nearby fields to see if any animals needed treatment. Their first patient was a buffalo with cunjunctivitis who was given eye drops. A few buffaloes and cows were quite dehydrated and malnourished. One had the flu and so was given an anti-inflammatory injection. We continued to see patients well into the sunset. Our last patient was a young buffalo calf that had collapsed after coming back from the watering hole. He was suffering from hypocalcemia, dehydration and a low temperature. We provided him with the necessary treatment and instructed the farmer to move the calf to a shady area, as the sun is blazing hot during the day.

Back at the campsite, the medical team was preparing for seeing patients who would arrive in the morning from nearby villages. Some of them were refugees from the flood affected areas and who had then stayed on in Khorwah. After a hearty dinner and a couple of campsite offroading stories, everybody finally called it a day.

The next morning, people had already begun to line up to see the doctors, some of whom were still asleep! Livestock assistant Ali Nawaz came over and we collected our veterinary medicines and were on way to the village of Mor Palari where a couple of ill animals awaited us. Mor Palari has a total of 9 households and a 100 large animals. One of the men there had lost 12 animals over the course of a few days. He suspected an obstruction in the stomach, which is generally caused by digestive distress from a hard bolus. This could be due to their diets, which hardly comprise any greens, and little access to fresh drinking water.

One female buffalo had colic the night before. She was administered a carminative mixture to help ease her stomach. Ali suggested that the animals should also be vaccinated and anti-venom provided for snake bites.

One common complaint by all the farmers was the lack of availability of genuine veterinary medicines. Most of them in the local area were fake and led to all kinds of complications. The government veterinarian visited their area once in about ten days, and the nearest veterinary store/dispensary was 25km away in Golarchi. Poor animal management was observed generally. Drench (deworming medicine), which should be given twice a year, was not used. A lack of fresh greens in the diet led to malnutrition and general weakness in the animals. Many of the animals were without shade and had fever. No water system or trough were seen throughout our visits.

Amongst chickens, disease spreads like wildfire at least once a year. Most of them don’t make it. The local livestock assistant told us that since buffaloes cannot sweat, they need to be around water to keep cool. Most of the farmers keep them under the sun and don’t take them to watering holes enough. Since none of them getting proper nutrition, their milk yield was low, they had shorter lifespans than average, and they also reached maturity later.

Later in the morning, Dr. Zulfiqar Haider Otho from the Karachi Animal Hospital joined us on the rounds. He had set off from Karachi with a team of doctors in the morning. His first patient was a buffalo with an abscess on the neck. He removed the abscess under local anesthesia and instructed the caretakers on how to look after the wound.

Dr. Mohsin Ali, a local vet in Khorwah also joined our team. He told us about a farmer who fed his buffaloes grass sprayed with some chemical and they all died. He was quite pleased to spend time with our team and took us to a number of sick animals in the area. The cases ranged from lameness, chronic mastitis, eye problems, malnutrition, diarrhea and emaciation.

By late evening we had down the rounds of a couple of neighboring villages and had seen all the sick animals. We headed back to the farmhouse where the medical doctors were winding up camp. The remaining veterinary medicines were handed over to Ali Nawaz and Dr. Mohsin Ali. After a quick mandatory group picture, we piled into our cars and headed back to Karachi.