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World Animal Day falls on October 4 and this year, animal lovers in Lahore will be marching for their furry friends on Saturday at The Bezubaan March. The initiative, organised by animal welfare group Faltoo Sey Paltoo, the Jaandar Animal Welfare Organisation and law firm Environmental and Animal Rights Consultants Pakistan, aims to raise awareness about the culling of stray dogs.

The march will take place at Faisal Chowk from 3pm to 6pm, the organisers say everyone is welcome to come and raise their voices for animals who “cannot speak for themselves”. Justice, the organisers said, is not optional and nobody can be above the law. Citing court rulings, they said the culling of dogs was unlawful, but continued unabated, especially in housing societies where armed guards often shoot animals.

Mistreatment of animals is a serious and often overlooked problem in Pakistan, where culling is just one of the many abuses animals are subjected to. In September, a horrific incident came to light, where two men punished a camel by chopping off one of its legs. The camel, Sumi, had strayed onto their land and was found drinking from their pond.

In July, a social media influencer was arrested in Lahore after posting videos of herself torturing and killing cats, rabbits and other animals. Several animals were recovered from her home, many of which were alive and were shifted to shelters by the Police Animal Rescue Centre (PARC).

The centre released a report in May, documenting 1,379 animal rescues in two years of operations in Lahore. The centre is one of the major efforts to promote animal welfare in Punjab alongside the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Policy 2021, which presents a humane framework to control stray dog populations and minimise the risk they pose to humans. The march organisers have urged the authorities to implement the policy properly.