Sonya Rehman in Friday Times:
She was spotted by my mother in FCC Park, in Gulberg, Lahore. It was early August during Ramadan. An emaciated dog, curled up in one of the green belts, fatigued due to severe malnutrition and starvation, too weak to lift her head.
More here.
Sidrah Roghay in The News:
Carol Noreen is an animal lover. A school principal by profession, everyday, she puts on a big cooking pot of dog and cat food on her stove. The idea is to provide food to owners who cannot afford to feed their animals. One such owner is her watchman who has adopted a stray cat.
“I cook food for the animals myself, I do not like to leave this job to my servants,” she says.
Noreen volunteers for Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), and has rescued several strays. She shares one such instance when she saw an injured dog, at PIA Colony, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, while going to work. Since she could not rescue it all alone she called up her team for help. The vet in the team, sedated the dog, and took it for treatment.
More here.
Dr. Zulfiqar Otho and Dr. Shalla Hayat of the Karachi Animal Hospital check a blind donkey rescued by PAWS.
All creatures on earth are sentient beings. There is not an animal on earth, nor a bird that flies on its wings – but they are communities like you.
The Quran 6:38
Swiss animal rights lawyer, Antoine Goetschel, recently made international news when he defended a dead pike in a case of cruelty by a local fisherman who was overheard boasting about landing the fish after a ten minute long struggle. The basis of his argument was that fish are sentient beings and that the fisherman had caused the pike needless pain. Islam is a religion where the sentience of all animals has been declared in the Quran. However, the expected application of such a belief is sadly amiss in Pakistani society. In fact, many of the most vocal advocates for animal rights in the history of Pakistan have been non-Muslim. Continue reading
Guest post by Ayza Omar, a graduate student of Broadcast Journalism at Columbia.
FeeFee was always smiling or whining. She was barely ever serious. She also had a short fuse. Her spurts of anger were obvious from her mad dash to the gate, teeth bared, legs splayed and a low guttural growl that made the bravest of guests perch on the balls of their feet, ready for flight. Continue reading
Based on a tale from Hindu mythology, this is the story of Yudisthira, a pious king whose place in Heaven is determined by his love for a dog. Animated by Wolf Clifton in the style of an Indonesian shadow puppet play. Winner of best animation on animal rights at the 3rd International Rights Film Festival “STEPS” 2009.
Faiza Ilyas in Dawn:
KARACHI, Dec 25: The government and the media have not yet given due priority to rabies that claims thousands of lives every year in the country.
One major reason of this high mortality is the fact that the government has not developed any strategy to address this serious public health issue.
Official apathy can also be gauged from the fact that 75 per cent of the public sector hospitals are still using the old vaccine which has been found ineffective in many cases and declared obsolete by the World Health Organisation two decades ago.These points were highlighted by Dr Naseem Salahuddin, head of the department of infectious diseases, Indus Hospital, at a public awareness programme held at Aga Khan University auditorium on Friday.
More here.
Irfan Husain’s article in DAWN about animal welfare in Pakistan.
Read an article by Benazir Shah about rabies in Pakistan.
The Kennel Club of Pakistan‘s All Breed Championship Dog Show in 2005. Watch Part 2 here.