![]() But please carry on fighting on TV shows," she tweeted, referring to political deadlock in Pakistan which has unraveled the economy and pushed food prices into hyper-inflationary territory, sending millions into hunger.Ĭhughtai is not the only one who has been reflecting on the parallels.īack in Noor Jehan's enclosure, the conservationist, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, tells NPR that he can't stop thinking about an incident in March where hundreds of people, just a few miles from the Karachi Zoo, rushed into a factory complex where managers were distributing free food. "Time and time again this country fails the vulnerable," wrote Alia Chughtai, a journalist and social commentator in Karachi, on Twitter. Others have made a connection between animal abuse and the broader plight of Pakistan's downtrodden. "There's this notion that violence toward vulnerable living beings in Pakistan is considered to be" - the former psychotherapist fished for the word - "asserting dominance." It is the only welfare check available for Pakistan's thousands of work donkeys. Their masters are some of Pakistan's poorest laborers, and so this clinic, run by the Pakistani charity ACF Animal Rescue, is often the only opportunity for them to get their donkeys checked.Ĭhundrigar spoke to NPR on a recent day in the working-class district of Korangi, where she was overseeing a medical camp for donkeys who cart heavy loads, like scrap metal across the city. The donkeys cart heavy loads like scrap metal across the city. "What I have seen in Pakistan as far as animal abuse goes, I have never seen in any other country," says Ayesha Chundrigar, founder of the Pakistani charity, ACF Animal Rescue, which rescues about 20 animals a day, ranging from tortured stray cats and dogs, a donkey forced to swallow acid and a monkey whose arm flesh was burnt off, leaving only a bone.ĭiaa Hadid/NPR Donkeys wait to be seen by staff of a donkey medical clinic in the scraggly neighborhood of Korangi in the port city of Karachi. "Noor Jehan's story also raises the question of whether countries like Pakistan are even capable of operating zoos," wrote local publication, Global Village Space.Īctivists hope the conversation will continue, because they say, the situation is dire for Pakistan's animals. "Pakistan is truly incapable of showing mercy to animals," she continued. "I regret to say this, but I think Noor Jehan can only find peace when she dies," said Pakistani singer Natasha Baig in an Instagram story republished in the Pakistani daily, The Express Tribune. ![]() Local media reported he was appointed in the wake of the previous director's dismissal for negligence after several zoo animals died and Noor Jehan's mysterious injuries went untreated.Ī discussion of animal - and human - neglectĪs the details of Noor Jehan's neglect came to air, the revelations sparked an online conversation about the widespread neglect and abuse of animals in Pakistan. ![]() Since then, he told NPR, he was dealing with Noor Jehan's decline. The zoo's current director, Kanwar Ayub, told NPR he couldn't comment on Noor Jehan's neglect, her living conditions or even that of other zoo animals, as he had only been appointed to manage the institution in early April. A gorilla sat quietly in another cage, entirely alone. Others threw chips and chocolate at baboons in a tiny enclosure, gleefully watching them gobble them up. On a recent spring day, boys chipped off cobblestones to hurl at a crocodile huddled in a concrete pool. It's not just the elephants that suffer at the zoo. "I don't know how one can sleep if you know your three legs are chained – two in the front, one in the back." For years, they were shackled while they slept – it's unclear why, Omar said. Omar, of the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society, gestured to the concrete shed where the two used to sleep. But Noor Jehan's only company has been a fellow captive female elephant, Madhubala. Her new home was an enclosure at the crumbling Karachi Zoo, near a busy road.Įlephants live in matriarchal herds, and in the wild, female elephants stay close to their mothers their whole lives. She arrived to Karachi after a Pakistani poacher captured her from her herd in Tanzania, along with three other baby elephants. To add to her allure, zoo officials named her after the beloved Pakistani diva Noor Jehan.īut activists say her life has been anything but glamorous. When she first arrived at the zoo as a plump toddler, nearly 15 years ago, Pakistanis flocked to see her. Poached from the wild, popular in Pakistan A mysterious accident left her dragging herself about on her two front legs until animal rights activists raised the alarm on social media. Diaa Hadid/NPR Noor Jehan the elephant is only 17.
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