Beasts of burden

Published May 11, 2015
The writer is a member of staff.
The writer is a member of staff.

THE city by the sea is not really known for any particular affinity its residents might have for animals, notwithstanding the admirable work of organisations such as World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan in, for example, setting up turtle hatcheries.

Press reports about the zoo are fairly frequent, and uniformly saddening; other news stories that concern animals that have been published over recent years have involved busting or the pursuit of criminal gangs involved in the trafficking of animals protected under international as well as domestic laws. Animals, especially of the exotic variety, are perhaps the ultimate ‘other’ here, the powerful ones to be wary of, the weak ones — like the stray dogs and cats that scavenge on the city streets — to be cruel to, and wherever possible, to be made a spectacle of.

No wonder, then, that Karachi has of late hosted a couple of big-expense, big-draw shows. Sometime ago, it was a dolphin show at the Maritime Museum that everyone was talking about. At the moment, the Great Pakistani Circus is performing every day at the KMC Sports Complex.


In its treatment of animals, society holds up a mirror to itself.


By all accounts, the Great Pakistani Circus constitutes incredible sets of performances. There are entertainers from countries including Russia, Ukraine and Malaysia — displays of gymnastic excellence, much material to awe and inspire and emulate. The execution of the circus as a whole has been praised. The only caveat, a couple of observers pointed out, is the inclusion of animal performances.

There’s a pair of chimps that ride a bike, skits with miniature horses, a couple of ostriches and a lion cub to amuse and entertain. The problem, as one report pointed out, is that the chimpanzee for example is listed under the international Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species as critically endangered. But even beyond that, there is the argument made by animal rights activists: wild animals usually are made to perform under duress, trained through techniques that can be hurtful physically or psychologically, and put up for public consumption in a spectacle that is as degrading to the performers as it is unhealthy for the audience.

In the small but vocal corner of animal rights activism, there has been criticism of the circus as well as resistance to the earlier dolphin show — a debate that unfortunately went largely unnoticed by the public. These are also the voices that speak up, sadly to little avail, when city governments decide to bring the stray dog population under control by bringing out the guns, as happened in Karachi recently, or by leaving out pieces of poisoned meat, as was a regular occurrence in Islamabad during my childhood — never mind the early-morning commuters, exiting their houses to find canine corpses littering the streets.

Some might be tempted to point out that this is a country where the price of even a human life is so low as to be negligible, a society scarred by years upon years of senseless, awful blood-letting. What price animal rights activism, they might argue, when the abysmal status of the human rights record needs addressing first.

They’d be right, in a way, but also wrong in that a society’s attitude towards the helpless — animals amongst them — is a mirror to what that society actually is. In the child who casually chucks a stone at a cat simply because it’s there, lurks the adult that will beat a pupil who hasn’t done what he’s told.

Casual cruelty is a habit, and on a societal level, it builds past individuals to a general lack of empathy and sensitivity to suffering. Which, if attitudes towards animals are taken as a benchmark, is a bit odd, given that previously, in Pakistan’s agrarian and animal performers’ landscape, there was much regard, even love, for the beasts that live alongside humans.

Among the tiny, extremely underprivileged communities/families that train and thus earn money off local varieties of monkeys, for example, there used to be a bond between the trainer and the animal. In such communities in Punjab, the monkey was treated almost as a child, fussed over and loved, the profession handed down over the generation. (Animals were trained through coercive techniques, of course, but in this country children too are disciplined through corporal punishment).

In villages, the household’s cow was the source of much more than milk; the tonga wala and the gadha-gari wala in general took good care of their animal, honouring the fact that it was their source of livelihood. The death or sickness of these beasts amounted to a disaster.

If this seems no longer the case through even casual observance, it could be argued that such people — overwhelmingly the poorest of the poor — treat their own and animals in general with the same regard that they themselves receive. In a cruel and callous landscape of endless need, perhaps there is little scope for being gentle.

The writer is a member of staff.

hajrahmumtaz@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play

Opinion

Editorial

Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...
New terror wave
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

New terror wave

The time has come for decisive government action against militancy.
Development costs
27 Mar, 2024

Development costs

A HEFTY escalation of 30pc in the cost of ongoing federal development schemes is one of the many decisions where the...
Aitchison controversy
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

Aitchison controversy

It is hoped that higher authorities realise that politics and nepotism have no place in schools.