A Bengal tigress which was being transported from Lahore to Multan by an animal dealer, Muhammad Adnan, ran away from its cage into the fields near Multan in the early hours of Sunday, DAWN has reported.
The age of Bengal tigress is reportedly about two years and its value is Rs5-6 million.
Punjab Wildlife Department Multan Deputy Director Sheikh Zahid told Dawn’s Shoaib Ahmed that the tigress was being carried in a pick-up in a cage. The incident happened when the pick-up got stuck in a muddy track on Bosan Road behind the Multan Public High School.
The cage got opened when the vehicle jerked to get out of the mud. The owner, Muhammad Adnan, called 15 but the police told him to contact the wildlife department.
The furious tigress ran into the fields and reportedly injured two persons, including a wildlife official. However, the injuries were mild. The Punjab Wildlife Department officials and a DHA Multan Zoo vet were involved in the operation to catch the tigress. It was tranquilised by a DHA Multan Zoo vet.
Animal dealer Adnan was fined Rs221,000 by the wildlife department under the Punjab Wildlife Act 1974. The tigress has been returned to the owner on payment of the fine, told Sheikh Zahid.
Punjab Wildlife and Parks Department Director General Mudassar Riaz Malik talked to the media. To a question why tigers and lions had not yet been categorised in Schedule 3 of the Punjab Wildlife Department, the DG said he had called a meeting on Monday (today) to set standards and regulate the issue of keeping tigers and lions in breeding farms and houses only. “Such animals fall in Schedule 3 and it is prohibited to keep them domestically,” he added.
Malik was asked if these animals were put in Schedule 3, what would happen to the private breeding farms having a huge number of lions and tigers. To this he responded it’s a crucial issue that would be discussed in the meeting besides all other aspects and possible licensing of such animals. To yet another question, Mr Malik said the meeting would also discuss either a new schedule or a new law.
The wildlife DG said the Captive Wildlife Management Committee had got rules approved by the cabinet and new law would be introduced under these rules.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr., grandson of former Pakistani President and Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, has taken a step forward with advocacy for wildlife and climate justice. In his latest Instagram post, he has announced the launch of Bulhan Foundation.
Bulhan Foundation aims to “foster a culture of care and compassion for all living beings”. Further details have been given on the foundation’s official Instagram page where they highlight their vision. Their goal is to “operationalize and implement pro-nature and pro-people laws”. Under this ambit, they look forward to the preservation of wildlife as well as indigenous visual cultures.
Acknowledging that Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, the foundation also intends to be one of the “first responders providing on-the-ground relief” to humans and animals during natural calamities like floods, drought, possible economic-induced famine etc.
With a solutions-oriented approach, Bulhan Foundation will be Sindh’s first locally initiated wildlife foundation. Bhutto’s sister, author Fatima Bhutto and friend, Menaal Munshey, are the co-founders.
The mascot for the foundation is the Indus River Dolphin, known locally as Bulhan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been working for wildlife protection for a long time now, especially when it comes to dolphins. Earlier this year, at his art exhibition at Como Museum Lahore, he dedicated an entire section to the blind dolphins of river Indus.
A dramatic incident unfolded at the city court in Karachi when a baby monkey managed to escape while being brought alongside 13 other monkeys by the Sindh Wildlife Department, reported Geo News.
Two individuals responsible for transporting the monkeys were arrested by the authorities for violating provincial wildlife laws. The suspects were brought before the district and sessions court on Thursday, which fined them Rs100,000 and ordered to hand over the baby monkeys to the zoo.
The monkeys were being kept in wooden mango crates, and one clever little monkey managed to escape the confines of its container. The baby monkey sought refuge on a tree, proving to be quite elusive due to its small size and agility, making it challenging for the rescue team to catch. The Sindh Wildlife Department stated that they would continue their rescue operation the next day (Friday), which is today, in an effort to capture the baby monkey still at large in the city court area.
The department had recovered them during a search of a passenger bus arriving in Karachi from Charsadda. The monkeys were suspected to have been illegally captured from the forests in Charsadda.
Authorities are working diligently to ensure the safety and welfare of these rescued monkeys, aiming to return them to their natural habitats or appropriate care facilities.
In the late hours of Thursday, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) confirmed that a leopard that was on the loose in a private housing society in Islamabad was contained.
The lone male common leopard captured from DHA was sedated and brought safely to IWMB’s rescue & rehab centre. The leopard is now awake & roaming inside it’s enclosure. There were NO fatalities. Everyone is safe and sound! @WildlifeBoard@ClimateChangePKpic.twitter.com/LHdGthjds5
A total of total injuries has been reported so far by the officials.
Leopard on the loose in DHA Islamabad
On Thursday, a leopard injured people by entering DHA Islamabad who tried to capture it.
The wild animal entered an under-construction house in Phase II of the society late on Thursday afternoon. Videos filmed by residents on social media show the animal evading attempts to capture it and jumping on walls.
The Islamabad Wildlife Board and Assistant Commissioner Zukhruf Fida Malik issued instructions to residents to stay indoors till the animal is captured.
The Wildlife Board also specified that they are using a trapper to try and capture the big cat.
Leopards are indigenous to parts of Islamabad and neighbouring areas including Murree and Nathiagali. They are a protected species in the Margalla Hills.
Bahawalpur National Park administration captured two crocodiles that escaped from the lake, Geo News reported.
According to Deputy Director Wildlife Muhammad Zahid, crocodiles were experimentally transferred to the lake at Lal Sohanra National Park in Bahawalpur, out of which two crocodiles suddenly went missing.
A couple in Georgia found 18 snakes under their bed before going to bed.
Max Wilcher and his wife, Trish, told the media they were about to go to sleep when Trish noticed something moving on the floor under the bed. She got a little closer to see what was moving. A few moments later, her husband saw a snake.
“And then a second later another piece moved,” Wilcher said.
“And I went to my husband: ‘We have snakes’,” Trish said.
He added that the 18 snakes were found under the bed but they did not want to harm them so they grabbed the snakes with tools and put them in a bag and left them in a nearby creek.
Trish then called wildlife experts to see if there are any more baby snakes.
A pair of rare Persian leopards sighted in Pakistan for the first time last year have been filmed and photographed in the wild, officials said Friday.
Sharifuddin Baloch, a senior conservation official in Balochistan province, said the pair were first spotted by rangers on Mount Chaltan in the Hazarganji Wildlife Park six months ago.
Adult leopards are solitary in the wild and pair only to mate.
“We equipped our staff with cameras and binoculars to film the pair and take photos,” Baloch said. “This month our staff succeeded.”
Persian leopards are a panther sub-species native to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus. They are extremely rare, however, and listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered.
Fewer than 1,000 are believed to exist in the wild, with another 200 in captivity.
“We are taking steps to protect the rare species,” Baloch told AFP, adding officials were sharing data with the IUCN.
Video shot by park officials shows one of the leopards beautifully camouflaged on a rugged, rocky hillside until it stands up and pads away.
Baloch said there was no previous record of the creature ever being sighted in Pakistan.
Panthera tilliana is bigger and has a different spot pattern to the more common Indian leopard (panthera fusca) found across Pakistan.
Pakistan is also home to vulnerable snow leopards (panthera uncia) in the northern Himalayas.
A man has been caught beating a lion cub on camera. In a video that is being widely circulated on social media, the man named Saad can be seen beating the young cub while dragging him with a chain. The cub’s heartwrenching cries can also be heard in the video.
The video sparked outrage on social media with several prominent personalities including Fatima Bhutto demanding the cub be rescued by authorities. Lahore-based JFK Animal Rescue And Shelter has also urged the government to stop licensing wild animals to individuals privately, saying that every third person in Pakistan now owns a lion as a pet.
The animal rescue service also initiated an online petition for this purpose and urged people to raise their voices for these animals. According to JFK, by owning a licence in Pakistan you can buy, sell or import lions and tigers and do whatever you want to do to them. In the recent past, multiple cases of animal abuse and violation have been reported.
The animal rights organisation also explained that lion and tiger owners, declaw them, beat them, cage them, take their teeth out and later use them for breeding where they open entire breeding farms and then sell the cubs for money.
“Once anybody gets the license there is no check and balance, and every other person is allowed to do all sorts of evil things to these wild animals behind closed walls. Many also torture them for TikTok and social media videos,” reads the petition.
“Many times lions are used as props and kept as slaves. People deprive them of their natural habitats and give them a miserable life. We have seen multiple cases of this abuse in a single year and now we want to deal with the root cause which is these licences, these licenses should be cancelled and there should be a complete ban on owning wild animals as pets,” it adds.
Fatima Bhutto also requested her followers to sign the petition and urged the government to rescue such wild animals from captivity.
Meanwhile, lawyers Ahmad Pansota and Hassaan Khan Niazi have taken up the case and have promised to file a petition before the court on the matter.
The lion cub abuse case has been taken up by Hassan niazi who will be fighting it and Muhammad Ahmad Pansota who is filing a petition against the license that lets you keep wild animals as pets. Please continue praying and supporting @GFarooqi@GFarooqi@Pansota1@petapic.twitter.com/o8qI6W3ijA
— JFK Animal Rescue And Shelter (@jfkshelter) May 3, 2021
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has allegedly denied international veterinarians and animal experts access to Karachi Zoo and Safari Park elephants Malika, Sonu, Noor Jahan and Madhubala, preventing them from receiving medical treatment.
In a detailed post on social media, the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), which identifies itself as a body “promoting compassion towards all sentient beings,” detailed the ordeal faced by the elephants and alleged that the KMC has barred international animal experts from assessing the health of the elephants and treating them accordingly.
The animal welfare society also said that Malika’s health is in “dire straits” and requires “urgent veterinary care”.
“Her cracked tusks, broken nails, swollen legs and urine burnt feet are a testimony to the abuse she [has] suffered,” said PAWS, adding that one of Malaika’s legs is four times the size of her other legs and she appears to be unable to properly bear weight on any of her legs.
“When she walks, she hobbles along very slowly. The pads of her feet are cracked and have deep pits, which the Safari park management and elephant keeper claim to be ‘winter dryness’.”
Her plight, along with Sonu’s, Noor Jehan’s and Madhubala’s, the three other elephants in Karachi, caught the attention of the international elephant network PREN that issued a report about their captive behaviour and housing conditions. https://t.co/d9EAUHlxAx
— Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (@pawspakistan) March 11, 2021
PAWS said that UK-based animal rights organisation Free The Wild (FTW) offered to help the elephants and send experts to Karachi to assess the animals’ health and devise a strategy with the authorities on how to treat them. They have also been running an online donation campaign for them so that the government does not have to bear the expenses. The campaign aims to raise $30,000 and $17,637.55 were raised till the last update i.e. March 10.
According to PAWS, KMC management gave its verbal permission to Free the Wild and Dr Frank Goëritz and Dr Thomas Hildebrandt, two renowned elephant specialists to come and assess the animals’ health. They were scheduled to arrive in Karachi on February 23. However, the city government changed its decision last minute, denying them access.
On seeing Malika’s ailing health, Free The Wild @ftwglobal, a charity based in UK, offered @kmcpakistan free veterinary assessment for all 4 elephants along with capacity building and training for the keepers with no financial burden on the city government https://t.co/GkShsMVQX2
— Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (@pawspakistan) March 11, 2021
But the weekend before, @kmcpakistan changed their mind, saw it as an attack on their writ and made it into an issue of pride and egos.
— Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (@pawspakistan) March 11, 2021
PAWS said that they had several rounds of meetings with KMC officials hoping to work out a solution to ease the elephants’ plight but the city government “raised objections against fundraising” claiming “that it brings a bad name to Pakistan”. PAWS also told The Current that neither the Sindh Government nor government officials have made any efforts to help the elephants and keep shutting out the animal rights body saying that “the elephants are the ‘property’ of KMC”.
We were aghast, but not surprised, at KMC’s reaction, for they are the gatekeepers singlehandedly responsible for the cruelty meted to the elephants over the last 12 years. Still, we continued to engage with their officials to work out a solution for the welfare of the elephants.
— Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (@pawspakistan) March 11, 2021
PAWS urged the federal and provincial governments as well as Prime Minister Imran Khan to help the elephants and ease their plight.
— Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (@pawspakistan) March 11, 2021
In a statement issued by FTW, all four elephants – reportedly smuggled from Tanzania in 2009 – are held captive in small cement enclosures and chained at the feet for 15 hours a day. The wild animals are suffering from broken nails and lacerated feet due to cemented floors, cracked tusks and swollen legs from standing all day and not having any movement.
“All four elephants are showing visible signs of psychological and physical pain and urgently need our help,” reads the statement.
FTW further said that just as their vets were “preparing to leave Germany – with visas arranged, international flights booked, local accommodation reserved and, very importantly, medication purchased – KMC suddenly withheld their permission for the Free The Wild vets to enter the zoo and safari park.”
“We have arranged for Dr. Frank Goëritz and Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt – two of the world’s most renowned elephant experts and arguably amongst the most qualified specialists in regards to elephant behaviour and wellbeing, to meet Dr. Isma Gheewala in Karachi on 22 February 2021.” pic.twitter.com/TKwGWLW7gU
— Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) (@pawspakistan) March 17, 2021
Co-founder of FTW Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, while expressing her disappointment, said: “Words just cannot express how disappointed we are by the sudden lack of support. The trip was planned and even medications purchased. This is not only a major setback for the health of the elephants but also has wasted very valuable funds as the medications will expire and cannot be returned. I fail to understand why anyone bites a helping hand. This was at no cost at all to the KMC and not only would have helped these animals but also provided training for locals moving forward. I hope the petition will overcome these odd bureaucratic obstacles.”
The animal welfare body added that “we are not going to just walk away. We [will] petition Karachi courts and requesting an urgent ruling to ensure the wellbeing of these animals.”
Advocate Owais Awan, who was part of Kaavan’s legal team and helped him gain freedom while speaking to The Current said that they have no choice but to file a petition before the Honourable Sindh High Court (SHC). He asserted that the animals are suffering and need immediate medical care, which can only be provided by experts.
“I was shocked to see the state of the elephants,” said Advocate Awan. “Their enclosures and conditions were even worse than Kaavan’s. He at least had some space to walk. These elephants are kept chained all day in tiny enclosures.”
Advocate Awan explained that all four elephants are African elephants and that Pakistani vets do not have the necessary expertise to deal with their problems, adding that the team of international experts coming were not only going to check the animals but were also going to train vets and caretakers to take better care of the elephants.
KMC responds
Meanwhile, speaking exclusively to The Current, KMC spokesperson Ali Hassan Sajid trashed PAWS claims and said that the animals were doing fine.
“We have a team of vets looking after them and all the elephants are being cared for,” said Hassan. This scribe requested Hassan to share pictures of the elephants. However, they were not received till the filing of this report.
When asked about using vaseline to treat cracks in the skin – a matter which stirred outrage online – Hassan said that vaseline is applied to the animals’ toes and skin because it tends to crack up in the winters just like human skin. He said that the ointment was used to heal the dryness and proved to be very effective.
The spokesperson also launched a tirade against the animal rights body, saying that they are using the elephants to raise donations and collect money.
“Chanda akhata kar rahe hain yeh log sirf,” said Hassan, alleging that the body has raised $30,000 by deceiving people.
Sajid further said that PAWS was bringing a bad name to Pakistan with its fundraising campaign and giving out a message to the world that Pakistan cannot care for its animals.
The official also said that KMC’s legal department is working towards launching an official complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against PAWS for bringing a bad name to Pakistan.
Earlier, in December 2020, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered KMC and Karachi Zoo administration to shift the 20-year-old Syrian brown bear Rano from her 25-foot wide Victorian ‘grotto’ pit to another open cage, 500 times bigger than her current enclosure. During the hearings, the court had also instructed KMC to present the zoo’s budget and had expressed anger over the fact that there was only one doctor for all animals at the zoo.
Zoos in Pakistan have long drawn international condemnation for their mistreatment of animals. Last year, on December 16, Islamabad’s Marghazar Zoo was shut down after the Islamabad High Court ordered for Kaavan, the elephant and two brown bears Babloo and Suzie to be relocated to sanctuaries abroad.
Netizens and animal rights activists have protested vehemently after a video of the couple’s photoshoot emerged on social media. As per details, the photo of the shoot was posted on Studio Afzl’s — a Lahore-based photography studio that does bridal photoshoots and covers weddings — Instagram account.
In one picture, the couple can be seen holding hands over the cub while in another, the lion cub was lying looking miserable on the stage. The hashtag #SherdiRani was also used in the pictures with the cub to give an emphasis on its presence.
While, the issue was first highlighted by JFK Animal Rescue and Shelter, it later got traction after it was shared on Twitter by ‘Save the Wild’: a group that is fighting to “save Pakistan’s wildlife from the threats of hunting, loss of habitat and pesticides”.
Following the tweet, other Twitter users also urged authorities to take action against the studio for mistreating the cub.
What’s wrong with people, a sedated Lion Cub as “prop” the couple starting a new life & the studio who did that should be ashamed, it’s about time @GovtofPunjabPK must rethink their “captive breeding” policy, from political rallies to wedding shoots, animals as Props, it’s sick
I hope they wake up from their slumber, the only positive I can take out of this whole incident is the public outcry. I hope the cub is rescued and rehabilitated into a more suitable environment.
I need details of this #animalcruelty Where did it take place Who are bride and grooms Who was the wedding photographer Most importantly who provided this Lion cub, We need to expose this underground Mafia breed Lions in captivity#endcaptivity@wildpakistanpic.twitter.com/NiyuGbtMeQ
