Dr. Khatoon, Thank you for your comments. I hope you are able to rescue this kitten, and thus save an innocent animal from further harm.

What else do you expect when throwing acid and karo-kari is so common in our country. We live in a primitive society. Unfotunately the people who should be reading this article either don't read this newspaper or cannot read or write at all. Therefore they cannot think about the consequences of their actions or inactions and our system with a vast network of families, mosques and madrassas cannot or will not tell them how repugnant their actions are. But Dawn should keep up its relentless struggle. It is a part of Pakistan. Maybe, very humbly I should suggest that there must be an Urdu /regional language Dawn too. It would be even a greater service to Pakistan.

Clue can be taken from Srinagar where dog numbers are effectively checked by ABC/AR Animal Birth Control/Anti Rabies program.40 dogs are picked daily and sterilized and vaccinated,then ear notched for identification and then they are released back to their territories.This is humane and non violent effort.Keep feeding Kitten,it will understand things with time.

Control of Stray dog menace has to be tackled in three steps. Usually stray dogs gather in packs in different localities due to availability of food. It is a normal practice for people to dispose off left over food outside their residence. Stray dogs are attracted to areas like garbage dumps and mutton shops and road side eateries where leftover food is available. Therefore the first step in control of stray dogs is proper disposal of food so that it is NOT available to them. Step two is to neuter dogs and spay bitches only by experienced Veterinary surgeons. The dogs should be released only after they completely recover from effects of surgery. Step three: Most probably the death of dogs witnessed by Dr. Surayya Khatoon were killed by "food mixed with strychnine". Strychnine causes a very slow and painful death and it is not a preferred method. Humane way to put a dog to sleep if inevitable is to first sedate / tranquillise the dog and then administer intravenous injection of "pentathol sodium" followed by "saturated solution of magnesium sulphate". This can be done only by a trained technician. Even though putting a dog to sleep is emotionally painful the method suggested is least painful to the dogs. I

i agree with you that it is an extremely callous way to control the population of dogs. but in our country, no one cares about the humans who get killed every day. do u think that people will actually raise their voice for stray dogs? O_O

- a people is known how they treat their animals and minorities.

What is International Society of Cruelty to Animals in Pakistan is doing? Do you think they are reading all these comments?

Stray dogs make packs, some time they attack and maul little kids.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that you can learn about the character of people of a country by the way they treat there animals. Here it can be the other way around. If you know the nation, (and most of the readers do) they would know how they would treat their animals. I am in the USA; treating animals like that is not only unbelievable, it is unthinkable. Here stray animals are captured and brought to a rescue homes where volunteers come and bathe them, clean them, groom them, and people come and adopt them and keep them with all the love they can give. If they have too many, or if animals are too sick or too old, they never even use the word “KILLING THEM”; they put them to sleep instead.

Thank you for your letter. A true cry from the heart. InshaAllah it will be heard. Strychinine poisoning is an extremely painful way to kill anything and should not be used in any circumstances. The WSPCA ( World Society for Protection of Animals) sponsored a successful program in Bangladesh where dogs were caught, spayed or neutered, given a rabies vaccination and then released. If Bangladesh can do this surely we can too. It is not sufficient for people to say human beings are suffering in Pakistan. We should reduce as much suffering as we have the power and ability to, whether human or animal or any living thing. Good luck with the kitten. May Allah SWT keep it in His Protection. Ameen.