Punjab police arrested a suspect allegedly involved in the “horrible” animal torture that was committed in Lahore and stopped the activity.
JFK Animal Rescue and Shelter de Lahore said he received reports on an “extremely horrible situation after an Instagram influencer was seen publishing torturing and killing animals, including bunny and cats.”
The organization said he immediately contacted the Police, who came to the location to find body and blood corpses, and the suspect found “laughing” when he approached him. The shelter said it would register a case against it and that the animals were transferred to the shelters by the Police Animal Rescue Center (PARC).
The images shared by the shelter showed cats, rabbits and raptors in captivity on the site.
The Superintendent of Lahore Police (ASP) Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi approached the incident in a video, saying: “We just returned from a case in which a girl … I was torturing animals and had rabbits, some exotic animals, cats and many other things.”
She said the suspect had been publishing graphic images of animal cruelty and violence in social networks. Police urged the public not to give pets to someone who suffers from mental problems.
“Please, start talking about animal cruelty because animal cruelty leads us to be cruel to children [and] being cruel to vulnerable communities. “
She told him Dawn.com The suspect was arrested and admitted to a mental health center. “She had also escaped several times from the rehabilitation in the past,” added the officer.
ASP NAQVI SAID A CASE WAS REGISTORREED ON PARC’S COMPLAINT AT DEFENCE B POLICE STATION Under Pakistan Criminal Code Section 289 (negligent behavior with respect to animal), section 3 (penalty for cruelty to animals and for salt of animal killed with unnecessary cruelty) of the prevention of cruelty to animals act. Sections 10A (Cruelty to Animal Prohibited), 12 (Certificate of Lawful Possession) and 15 (Restriction of treatment in animals, trophies or meat) of the Wildlife Punjab Law (Protection, preservation, conservation and management), 1974.
The reason given by the ASP for the FIR was “cruelty towards animals after making them compared and then killing animals and publishing videos/images of the graphic content on Instagram and other social media platforms.”
Parc was established as a pioneer institution in Lahore in 2023, making significant advances during the past year to rescue and protect animals from abuse, negligence and abandonment.
Since its inception, Parc has safely relocated 1,130 animals to protection centers where they received appropriate care and treatment. These efforts have played a vital role in reducing animal suffering in urban environments. It generated a detailed report on animal abuse and the protection of animal rights in May, saying that it had rescued 1,379 animals, 50 of them extreme cruelty, in two years.
Pakistan almost does not have an animal welfare policy or service. The most prominent law for the protection of animals, the law of prevention of cruelty towards animals (1890), which dates back to the colonial era, has a limited reach and lacks an understanding of animal welfare in the current context.
The federal government approved a law in 2018, increasing fines for animal cruelty. The maximum fine to RS100,000 increased for animal cruelty, which had remained at the RS50 level since the law was approved for the first time in 1890, for criminals for the first time. The minimum fine rose to RS10,000. There was a similar increase in fines for other crimes against animals.
However, the law is only applicable in the Federal Capital and does not extend to the rest of Pakistan. This is because animal welfare became a provincial subject after amendment 18, and the provinces must promulgate their own laws.
That has not yet happened, which results in a punishment for crimes against animals in the rest of Pakistan remains the same as under the law of 1890.
