Cruelty towards animals is a sign of a society where no one is spared abuse

June 28, 2024

ISLAMABAD – IT has been about two weeks since a heartbreaking incident of camel mutilation came to light in Pakistan.

In that case, it was alleged that a landowner, enraged by a camel that had been foraging in his field, cut off the poor animal’s leg. The female camel was only eight months old. The camel’s poor owner named the landlord as the culprit, but said that the police were trying to protect him. Earlier, the police had arrested six suspects but said they could not find proof of the landlord’s involvement in this act of barbarity.

The case only gained prominence when a video of the maimed camel went viral on social media. The Sindh government is said to be working with an NGO to provide an artificial limb to the injured camel.

It is unfortunate that this is only one of several instances pertaining to animal abuse in Pakistan. In fact, this form of bestiality is rampant in the country. Just a little before the camel incident, an extremely disturbing video emerged of a dog being thrown from a balcony of a high-rise building, while days after it, news emerged about a man cutting off a donkey’s ears.

Taken together with the shabby treatment meted out to animals at Pakistan’s zoos (the case of the elephant Noor Jehan in Karachi immediately comes to mind), these incidents expose the depth of inhumanity that now exists in society.

Research shows that a proclivity for animal abuse is a primary indication that the perpetrator is a psychopath and likely to act similarly towards human beings. If this is true, Pakistan has no dearth of potential criminals whose complete lack of empathy for the suffering of other living beings is there for all to see.

There is no one in this country who has not been a witness to