Zhalay Sarhadi wants city-wise animal welfare response teams for injured and targeted strays
The actor called on authorities to take responsibility and appealed to her followers for solutions to Pakistan’s ongoing animal welfare crisis.
The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) launched on Wednesday a pre-dawn raid on an illegally constructed pet market near Lahore’s famous Data Darbar shrine. According to shopkeepers, the demolition resulted in the deaths of many cats, dogs and birds that were buried alive under the rubble.
While an LDA official denied any animals were harmed in the demolition and the authority has since posted clips of its staff purportedly removing cages from the market, prominent Lahore-based animal welfare organisations, Todd’s Welfare Society and JFK Animal Rescue and Shelter, posted videos from the site of the incident showing people pulling out animals — both dead and alive — from beneath the rubble.
Netizens were horrified after seeing videos from the demolition site, calling the action “cruel” and “inhumane”.
Enraged users on X asked how this could have been allowed to happen and what it says about us as a society.
Some people turned to the provincial government for justice, asking Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to take action against the officials responsible.
Others said she shared some of the blame as the LDA chairperson. Netizens, including notable rights activist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior, said the chief minister only cared about animals when it came time to impress foreign dignitaries — Maryam is currently in Brazil as part of Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference COP30.
Celebrities also decried the situation, with actor Zhalay Sarhadi and RJ Anoushey Ashraf posting stories on Instagram expressing their utter disbelief at the cruelty.
Sarhadi called for action against the perpetrators, saying, “This kind of senseless cruelty is only inhumane”.
Cover photo by M Arif Ali/ White Star