ISLAMABAD: Four days after a partial lockdown was imposed across Pakistan to limit the spread of coronavirus in the country, Kiran Maheen and her team began to worry about the fate of animals at pet shops across Lahore.
“A few of us went over to Tollington Market to see what was happening,” Maheen, who is the CEO and founder of Todd’s Welfare Society (TDS), an animal rescue and rehabilitation shelter, told Arab News over the phone.
She recalled “banging on the doors of several stores” after shopkeepers refused to open them, and eventually called the police.
“They made them open the shutters. That’s when we saw so many dead animals lying on the ground inside,” Maheen said, describing the scene at Tollington, a famous pet market in Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
She added that while the experience was “gruesome,” they were able to rescue nearly 30 dogs, cats, and rabbits who were reportedly “thrown in a sewer behind the market by their owners.” “It was absolutely horrific,” she said.
The problem is not limited to Lahore alone.
Representatives from animal rescue groups who spoke to Arab News said that they had been inundated by calls from Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad by panicked residents talking about “the haunting cries of caged animals without food or water.”
Usra Qureshi, founder of The Animal Rehabilitation Zone and Network (ARZN) in Lahore, said she rescued 50 dogs from the Tollington Market a few days ago, after a concerned citizen messaged her to investigate why several puppies were roaming about unattended.
However, unlike Maheen, the scenes witnessed by Qureshi were those of utter devastation.
“Most of the shopkeepers said they had abandoned the pets because they were afraid of contracting COVID-10 from them,” Qureshi told Arab News.
Contrary to popular belief, COVID-19 is passed on “only through human contact,” the US-based Center for Disease Control says on its website, adding that there’s no evidence to prove that “companion animals, including pets, can spread COVID-19 to people or that they might be a source of infection.”
Qureshi says another issue faced by animal welfare groups is to find a new home for the rescued pets.
“Some of the dogs require surgery while others need to be rehabilitated, so their adoption isn’t something that seems likely anytime soon,” Qureshi said.
Desperate for help, she shared details of the incident on her social media channels on April 4.
“I never expected to receive so many queries for adoption,” Qureshi said, adding that the first person to reach out was one of Pakistan’s top models, Farwa Kazmi, who adopted a pet the very next day.
“These animals give us so much love. All they want is to receive love. I understand the issues for people to abandon them, but this is their home too. The least we can do is treat them with kindness,” Kazmi, who is also a fervent animal rights activist, told Arab News.
Both Maheen and Qureshi said that it’s these very sentiments that act as a silver lining during the ongoing crisis.
“We are operating on the goodwill of Pakistanis, and campaigning for donations. We have not been approached by any governmental organization nor received any funds yet,” Maheen said, commending the ordinary people for the support extended.
“I could not be more proud of the country. Yes, we’ve got some bad people in our society, but overall our society is very charitable.”
