Another day, another donkey subjected to horrific abuse

Donkey was bleeding so profusely we had to let it flow into buckets, reports ACF

With the nearing of 2018 polls, incidents of animal torture have increased during electioneering and other political activities.

Another such incident occurred when animal rescue team Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF) recovered a severely injured donkey, just two after a donkey was brutally beaten up during a political rally.

The non-profit group wrote on Wednesday, “Another day, another story of abuse. We do not know if it was related to anything political…all we know is that it is unimaginably horrific abuse at the hands of our people.”

“This donkey was reported to us from Gulshan-e-Iqbal… It appears he has been pelted and beaten on the head repeatedly by jagged edge objects or stones. His skull is completely visible, maggots have eaten all the flesh within it. His left eye has been gouged out,” it added.

It was reported that the donkey was “bleeding so profusely we had to let it flow into buckets. We ensured his bleeding has stopped, given painkillers, maggots removed and wound thoroughly cleaned”.

The ACF also shared images of the torture inflicted upon the donkey.

“Whether political or not, this is still a hate crime at the hands of our people,” the NGO further wrote.

“Where are the laws that protect animals? Why have they been forgotten or perhaps, never implemented properly in the first place?” it asked.

“Raise your voices. Don’t let this be the future for our children,” ACF urged. Also, the NGO complained of receiving threats for helping these injured animals. “The women running this organisation have been name-called, abused and threatened… we were threatened and bullied and terrorised by people just because we help street and working animals and we wanted a safe sanctuary for them,” it said.

ANIMAL TORTURE AND ELECTIONEERING:

This is not the first incident of animal torture during political rallies. On Sunday night, a donkey was beaten and bruised after supporters of a political party wrote the name of a political rival on the donkey’s body to elude to him.

The “donkey [was] beaten to pulp, punched in the face and abdomen several times, nose was broken, kicked all over his body until he collapsed, has rope marks and a car rammed into him…. all of this to describe one political party as an “ass” by some hooligans as written on the poor donkey’s body,” ACF had said in the earlier post.

Moreover, dogs and other animals have suffered similar treatment.

On Tuesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) responded to the allegations on its workers, saying the party’s supporters beat up a donkey in a brutal incident of animal violence during a rally after ACF’s post went viral.

The party tweeted, “Whether it is PTI supporters who beat up a donkey or Imran Khan opponents who did the same to a dog…. this reveals a vile degeneration in our basic mindset of humanity. This kind of cruelty has to stop across the board.”

The PTI did not confirm whether it was going to take any action against those responsible for the barbaric act.