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In a harrowing incident that has sent shockwaves across the internet, the ACF Animal Rescue shelter released a graphic and horrifically disturbing video showing a group of adult men throwing a dog from the terrace of a building in Karachi’s Liaquatabad. The footage resulted in calls for immediate action to protect stray animals from such vile and inhumane behaviour.

The graphic video was shared by the Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF) with a caption detailing the incident: “In Liaquatabad, Karachi, this group of boys threw the dog off a terrace because they were angry that homeless dogs were coming near the apartment to look for food”.

The Sharifabad police have arrested a janitor named Qasim. A case has been registered under Section 5 and Section 428 of the Pakistan penal code at the Sharifabad police station.

“There are six to seven more dogs that they have trapped to torture,” the animal shelter claimed. “The more we do this work, the more we realise that it is less about educating people and more about opening our eyes to understand that human beings are pure evil. Just look at the state of the world, do you think human beings are good?” the caption questioned.

This distressing incident, along with other cases of animal abuse and dog culling in the country, has prompted many people to voice their outrage and demand justice for the innocent and voiceless.

Artist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr took to Instagram to passionately denounce the act. In a video, he said, “Yesterday in Liaquatabad, the residents of a building threw a dog from that 7 to 8 floor building. That dog has died. I have sent my men to inquire why these people did what they did. I would also request all the followers of Shaheed Bhutto in that area to ask these people why they did that to an innocent animal. The screams of the innocent reach God.”

He said that these acts of cruelty are what really spoil the image of a country.

“Remember that you are ruining the image of Pakistan,” he said. “When you kill an innocent animal, you have ruined our country’s reputation. You have made us monsters in the eyes of the rest of the world and I hope you pay for it.”

Actor Nadia Afgan expressed her horror and grief over another incident through an emotional Instagram video. Afgan, who has been an outspoken advocate for animal rights, struggled to find words to describe her feelings: “ACF shelter sent me a video, and I haven’t been able to sleep for two nights.”

She went on to describe the graphic and horrifying details of the video, which showed a mob torturing stray dogs to death. One man in the video even threatened similar violence against anyone showing kindness to stray dogs. Afgan questioned the moral compass of those involved, repeatedly asking, “Aren’t you people afraid of God?”

“You wonder why bad things happen to you when you can’t even follow the teachings of our religion and be kind to a creature who has never done you any harm! I am not one to curse, but I pray that something even worse happens to you than what you have done to these dogs. You will all face a trial for this one way or the other. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Afgan also called on the government, police force, and animal rights activists to take decisive action against anyone displaying cruelty to animals. She urged her followers to educate themselves and their children to prevent such horrific acts from being perpetuated by future generations.

In a heartfelt caption accompanying her video, Afgan lamented the moral decline in Pakistani society: “We as a nation have no respect for anyone or any living being. This needs to stop. We have to make this country and this world a better place. Stop dog culling. The government needs to step in and put an end to the ruthless killing of dogs everywhere.”

The incident has struck a nerve across the nation, with many calling for stricter laws and harsher penalties for animal abusers. Several are horrified by the incident and many more have lost faith in humanity.

“I don’t want to talk about human rights anymore,” one user wrote in an Instagram story reshared by the ACF. “We are living in a society where people throw animals from the top of buildings,” they said, condemning the act and talking about how we’ve failed as a nation.

More users spoke about how the incident was sickening and shameful, yet it wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. “You think these psychopaths won’t come for your children? For you? Since you all are so concerned with yourselves. Hold the people who are inciting and carrying out such nauseating levels of violence against animals accountable,” one user whose story was shared by the ACF demanded.

Others said it is high time society learns about animal rights

Stray animals are rounded up and killed en masse on a routine basis in Karachi to curb their population. Municipal laws allow authorities to either poison or shoot stray dogs with impunity — a practice that has been widely condemned as being cruel and inhumane.

In May last year, a video of a dog being killed by hanging in Karachi was widely shared on social media. The video showed a man hanging a dog from a rack with the help of a rope. The man, the watchman of a market, was later detained. The local SHO said that he “may have employed the wrong means of killing the dog — hanging him, instead of poisoning or shooting, a usual practice in the city to kill dogs in a bid to protect children against dog bites.”

Unfortunately, moments of outrage online do little to curb such incidents. It is time local governments invest more in neutering stray dogs if population control is such a problem.

In December last year, the Karachi local government was asked to work with ACF to launch a public awareness campaign to prevent cruelty towards animals. Former caretaker chief minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar directed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to provide six vans to ACF to help rescue and neuter stray dogs. The ACF has since said that it never received any vans.

However, the ACF is just one of the very few functional animal shelters in the city and does not have the capacity to shelter all stray animals in the metropolis. Our government needs to create more animal shelters or help existing ones expand if people are not interested in adopting or even feeding stray dogs.

Education isn’t the only thing needed to stop these kinds of cruel incidents from happening — we need to foster a sense of empathy in our people, something that is sorely lacking if they think the solution to a stray dog problem is throwing the animal off a balcony.