Karachi, March 27, 2013: A meeting was called by The Brooke at the
Beach Luxury hotel today to address equine welfare concerns in
Pakistan. The objective of the meeting was to form working groups on
advocacy and legislation that would contribute towards a better
environment for horses, donkeys and mules. The participants included
relevant stakeholders from private organisations as well as government
officials.

The Brooke is an international organisation whose motto is “healthy
working animals for the world’s poorest communities”. They reach up to
3,90,000 horses, donkeys and mules across 26 districts of Pakistan.
They also work in partnerships with the government as well as with
other NGOs to ensure best use of existing infrastructure and local
knowledge. Of the estimated 4.7 million equines in Pakistan, The
Brooke hope to benefit with the help of partners 0.25 million equines by
2014.

Pakistan Animal Welfare Society co-founders Maheen Zia and Mahera Omar
attended the meeting and volunteered to join the advocacy group.
Compassion towards animals must be inculcated in society, especially
amongst children, so they grow up to be sensitive towards the needs of
all sentient beings.

In an encouraging sign for advocates of animal welfare, the World Wide Fund for Nature, along with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department, has initiated a programme to track leopards in Ayubia National Park with radio collars. As reported in this paper, the collars will aid conservationists in monitoring the routes and activities of the animal found in the northern regions of the country.

More here.

In a position paper launched on Wednesday, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) states, “We strongly recommend to the government and concerned agencies to re-consider the initiative and look into the matter in more detail. There are sufficient opportunities for public to see wild dolphins off the shore of Pakistan, especially Karachi. They can be observed without too much effort or expense and the experience is much more rewarding.”

All over the world animal welfare activists are trying to create awareness about the importance of preserving marine mammal habitats and keeping wild animals in the wild where they belong. But here in Karachi, instead of promoting ecotourism and keeping our marine waters pollution free, we prefer watching dolphins perform unnatural acts in captivity and get excited about the first company putting up a dolphin show in Pakistan.

We encourage you to write a letter to DAWN thanking them for covering animal welfare issues. Please also use the opportunity to politely remind the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation that there are other ways of entertaining ourselves that do not involve captive animals. Urge them to let wild animals remain in the wild, and let us work to preserve their habitats instead. You letter will help create awareness about the plight of dolphins in captivity.

Animals do not have a voice. You can make a difference by speaking up for them.

DAWN takes letters at letters@dawn.com

You can also send in letters to other publications:

The News
news.post@thenews.com.pk

Daily Times
letters@dailytimes.com.pk

Express Tribune
letters@tribune.com.pk

Let us know if your letter is printed!

Please forward this alert to your friends, family and colleagues.

The cage chosen for the leopard was big enough. While the leopard was in its old enclosure, it was always found in its concrete-floored retiring room. So, it didn’t matter if its cage had no other facilities in the old cage.

The leopard died a few days ago. It was caught from the wild in Pakistan and kept in a turkey cage at the Karachi Safari park for a few years before being shifted to a concrete cage at the Landhi-Korangi zoo. It was later shifted once again, this time to the Karachi zoo where it was kept in a larger cage. However, when the zoo management purchased a pair of pumas in July they shifted the leopard to a small concrete cage.

It is beyond comprehension how the Karachi city administration always has the money to purchase animals, but absolutely none to upgrade the existing enclosures to resemble the animals’ natural habitats. Not only does it regularly buy animals from foreign captive breeding facilities, it also enlists traders to capture animals from the wild and bring them to Pakistan.

The four baby elephants separated from their mothers and captured from the wild in Tanzania, supposedly as ‘gifts’ from the Tanzanian government, were brought to our city for its ‘entertainment starved children and adults’ in 2009. More than three years later they are all still housed in small barren individual cages. Two of them were shifted to the Karachi zoo more than a year ago. They are housed in separate cages with concrete floors. The ones at the Safari park are still kept in their initial quarantine cages. The city administration claims there is a ‘lack of funds’ to upgrade their enclosures. However, there is no lack of funds in purchasing more animals for these facilities in the near future.

A report in The News this summer quotes the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed:

New animals, including an elephant, a lion, a rhinoceros and a hippopotamus, are being purchased so as to make the two recreational spots more attractive for citizens. Pakistan’s biggest bird aviary would be completed at Safari Park in the next three months, which would contain hundreds of species of birds.

There is something quite morbid about being ‘entertained’ by the misery of other sentient beings. Surely there are other ways to entertain our people. How about boat rides to the mangroves and to Manora island, cleaning up our beaches and allowing traditional vendors, sandy volleyball courts at Seaview, football, basketball and cricket facilites at our parks, swimming pools, and turning all of whatever is left of Gutter Baghicha into a massive public park?

What have the animals done to deserve such treatment? Why can’t we not just let them live as they were meant to – wild and free in their own natural habitats? They do not exist for our entertainment. They are sentient beings just like us and wish to be free from pain and suffering. Let us work to protect and preserve their natural habitats. Zoos are anything but educational. All they teach our young generation is that animals are meant to be caged for our up close and personal entertainment.

An editorial in DAWN earlier this year pointed out the suffering captive animals endure in our zoos:

Animals in our zoos are poked and prodded by visitors who exemplify all that is callous about this country. Mental well-being aside, zoo animals are also neglected physically by apathetic, incompetent or resource-strapped authorities. Little surprise then that the mortality rate in Pakistan’s zoos is unacceptably high. We should hang our heads in shame because we have failed miserably in catering to the needs of the non-human animals entrusted to our care. Anyone who cages an animal should pause for a second and think how it would feel if the same were done to him or her. Given our track record, Pakistan does not deserve zoos of any sort, public or private.

The animals cannot speak up for themselves. Your voice can make a difference.

Please write a letter to DAWN thanking them for bringing the suffering of animals in our zoos to light. DAWN takes letters at letters@dawn.com

Do write polite letters to the Karachi city administration through other publications as well about the plight of animals in captivity. Ask them to not add any more animals to our zoos and to upgrade the enclosures of the existing animals. Remind them that animals are not for our entertainment. Your letters will help contribute to the continued coverage of animal welfare issues in the media.

The News
news.post@thenews.com.pk

Daily Times
letters@dailytimes.com.pk

Express Tribune
letters@tribune.com.pk

Let us know if your letter is published. Animal suffering in zoos can also be reported to the Born Free Foundation here. The Born Free Foundation is an international wildlife charity working throughout the world to stop individual wild animal suffering and protect threatened species in the wild.

Please forward this alert to your friends, family and colleagues.

I was excited as well as apprehensive to greet the two kites which were delivered to me this Thursday evening. Packed up in the crammed delivery cage, they appeared to be much smaller in size than I had imagined them to be. Obviously their tails had either not developed or were cropped to accomodate the convenience of handling them and caging them.

It was nearly sunset when I let them out of the cage basket and because of the time of the day and keeping in mind the emotional trauma they must be experiencing, I decided to let them have their privacy for that day. After all they are here and tomorrow is a new begining for them!

The next morning I got up quite early and went out to the garden area where I had housed them in a shed which I had personally cleaned and washed a day earlier. it has a wooden grilled door so they are safe from lurking tom cats of the neighbourhood. Before I go any further let me officially introduce you all the two kites with their respective names.

Out of the two, one is bulkier with huge round eyes..he has feathery crown that adds a cute look to him specially when he looks straight in the camera as if he was born to be a model. “Arden” he is…which means “valley of eagles. Arden has a quiet personality..he prefers to stay “under cover” hiding behind pots and greenery..eats less..and takes a bite when no ones looking at him. Sometimes when I try to pet his crown, he twists his neck all the way in circles! – I have a pair of handy gloves that I wear always when I have to handle them.

“Aras”.. means intelligence of eagle….the second Kite..is petite. Not much feathers on her. I dont know for sure their gender but Aras seems loving and feminish compared to the attitude air that Arden carries on his spread wings.

Aras can be handled without gloves. She is timid and easily allows me to pet her. I have yet to train them to come and sit on my gloved hand. A bit of perseverence and am sure I will succeed.

I feed them chicken liver or mince.. Aras is a hogger..she loves to eat takes out the squealing noise whenever she sees food and wants to be fed first whereas Arden stands in the corner eyeing her as if saying.” stop being a drama queen and leave something for me too”!

Both enjoy a bath everyday from the garden hose. and spread their wings to dry off in the sun. They seem to look so magnificient spreading their wings as if just about getting ready for a flight up high. Wish it could be possible for them..but if not then..they always have a secure and caring home right here in my garden. And to end on a happy note…”Grace” the very old eagle that visits me for food almost every other day spent the entire day today sitting high and keeping a watch on the two down in the garden. She was watching my every move while I ws handling the two kites. So probably she too knows that they are family!

Thank you PAWS for this lovely gift.

Note by PAWS: The two kites were initially rescued by someone (we don’t know who) and left at a private veterinary clinic. We took care of the daily boarding expenses for about two months, but when nobody came forward to house them, and especially when we found out how they were being housed, one of the co-founders decided to foster them both in her garden. Both kites finally went to their forever homes this week. We are grateful to Zahrah Faisal for adopting them. Aras and Arden cannot fly, but they will be able to live in a large garden and roam around according to their own free will.

This is what Zahrah sent us a week ago:

“A poem I had penned a while back for an injured eagle that had itself entwined in the pole wires and its wing got damaged. Tending and caring for it, applying medication, a concoqtion of haldi paste to the affected wing was an ordeal. I had put it in an open box and making sure to hold her from the back side wearing gloves. Slowly it recovered and came to sit out on the box. It could fly around a bit. And Finallyt was a moment of joy for me.. the day came when I just let her free and she flew away.I I still feed the roaming eagles/kites that come over my patio. One of them has a very old connection with my routine of feeding and comes on a regular basis to have its snack.
I am happy to get a call from PAWS that they would be delivering me 2 injured kites today. I havent seen them yet but am sure it would be an experience for me that would be very rewarding.

Poem…
“I hear him..the whistling sound
I know I can tell when he’s around
perched up high pruning feathers strong as steel
waiting anxiously for his morning meal
I pack his favourite bite in a plastic wrap
fling it across high up in the air
in seconds he takes his regal flair.
zooming down gracefully he clutches his scrap
heads towards his usual abode..
starts nipping devouring the long awaited food.
And as I watch him soar above high
..looking above towards the sky.
.marvelling at the lightening speed of his pace
…my magnificient eagle and his flight of grace.!”