LAHORE: Volunteers -- individuals and groups -- have joined hands to rescue the sick, injured and starved animals being sold in Tollinton Market and other parts of the city.

As part of the initiative, they rescued many unhealthy animals from Tollinton Market and shifted them to a shelter house for medical treatment. They criticised the market pet animals / birds traders and public sector departments concerned for being inhuman while dealing with the lives of animals.

“Animals are an essential part of the universe and we should save their lives to keep our environment beautiful. But here in Lahore, the situation is deplorable since the traders at Tollinton Market are neither taking care of the animals they are selling nor are they cooperating to at least allow someone to keep them healthy,” Waleed Ahmad Sheikh, one of the volunteers working for animal rights under the aegis of a non-profit organisation, told Dawn on Sunday.

“On Saturday, we rescued several sick, injured and starved animals including 50 cats, 12 dogs and a duck from various shops of Tollinton Market and shifted them to a shelter house for treatment. We got the animals after paying their cost to the shopkeepers,” he said.

They rescued sick and starved ones from Tollinton Market

Tollinton Market has 10 small and major animal trading points. A number of people visit these sale points daily to buy animals including dogs, cats and exotic birds. Many people sell puppies and cats at various intersections and roundabouts in Gulberg and other parts of the metropolis.

The city also has stray dogs, cats and other animals that enter the metropolis from the suburbs. The departments concerned cull them through giving them poisonous food or gunshots rather than rehabilitating them. Social activists see such treatment animal-enemy that, according to them, must be discouraged at all levels.

Waleed said some of the sick cats rescued from Tollinton Market on Saturday died on Sunday during treatment. He was of the view that it all happened due to a lack of cleanliness at the market, cages, inadequate food for animals and resistance being offered by the shopkeepers about issues of taking care of the animals.

“The shopkeepers’ attitude is very cruel and casual. They are least bothered about the health of animals they sell,” he deplored, demanding that the government take notice of such a situation in the animal trading markets.

Waqas, a shopkeeper, dispelled the impression stating that they take care of the animals they keep at their shops to sell. “The cleanliness arrangements at Tollinton Market have improved a lot,” he said. He said many people leave their sick and starved animals outside their shops after they fail to look after them properly.

“This burden also comes on us as the people think these animals are ignored,” he told this reporter.

According to Dr Zarmina Khan Durrani, another volunteer, the government must impose complete ban on sale / purchase of animals at Tollinton Market since shopkeepers are allegedly involved in killing the animals which fall sick.

“They (the shopkeepers) are not even feeding the animals. And we have rescued many injured and sick animals from this market in a week,” Ms Durrani, who also works for JFK Animal (Rescue and Shelter) as director, said.

“Recently, we started a campaign against Tollinton Market where animals are suffering each day and are starved. Our team goes there every day to feed more than 1,000 animals and cleans the market on its own. We also take a veterinarian with us to check the animals and treat them inside markets. We rescue the critical ones and bring them to our shelter for treatment,” she maintained.

Ms Durrani said she along with other office-bearers and volunteers had been working in Lahore to save abused, injured, sick and starved animals.

“We rescue them and take them to our shelter on Bedian Road. And we are also holding a protest on Oct 11 (Sunday) in front of Tollinton Market in order to bring such an inhuman act to an end,” she said.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2020