KARACHI: It’s not just humans falling victim to the searing heatwave that has overwhelmed the entire city for the past few days, animals, especially those kept at government-run facilities, are also battling to survive in these extremely hot weather conditions. Some have died.

Three animals have died at the zoo, apparently from heatstroke and dehydration, sources told Dawn.

The death of a deer, a peacock and a peahen that were kept in separate enclosures occurred on Monday, they said. The exact deer species couldn’t be identified.

The zoo administration, however, has confirmed only two deaths.

“We have lost only two peafowl. The immediate reason for the birds’ death is heatstroke, though they did have some kind of intestinal inflammation,” said Syed Aqeel Tazeem Naqvi, additional zoo director, citing findings of the animals post-mortem examination.

According to him, the pair of peafowl lived in the same enclosure.

The zoo with its untrained staff offers highly harsh living conditions to its inmates and little effort has been made over the years to upgrade the facility, a lucrative source of income for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

Despite earning a hefty amount from the facility every year, the KMC spends little on animal well-being. The corporation is yet to pay the pending dues of animal feed to contractors that now often threaten it to cut off their supplies.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2015

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