Humans are the best creation of God and by that reference, it is our job to take care of the other living things present around us. To be specific, animals and birds are treated cruelly every day in front of us and we do not even have a minute to think about it. Stray dogs are killed on the pretext of spreading diseases while cats are generally shooed away with a shoe when they try to score a bite from our kitchens. Furthermore, it is a common sight on roads that their owners subject donkeys to torture. Most of them have visible injuries on their backs that are infected. These cart owners are poor, uneducated and are disrespected by commuters who constantly honk if a donkey cart is ahead of them. The immediate reaction of cart owners is to start beating the poor donkey that tries its best to go with the traffic speed. Not only this, these donkeys inhale a lot of pollution at every signal and by looking at their faces one can guess that they are far from being okay. These donkey carts are overburdened with materials that they transport and on their way to their destinations, they are subjected to constant torture. The sad thing is that illiterate people believe that donkeys have ‘hard skin’ and do not feel any pain when they are beaten with thick, wooden sticks. The other major victims of our ‘cruelty’ are dogs as they are deemed impure on many levels and are believed to house diseases within themselves. A mad dog that goes rabid in any neighbourhood around the world is put to death, which is understandable. The catch is that in our society, dogs are termed as a nuisance and many people subject even adorable puppies to hatred. The activity of our street children is to pelt stones on stray dogs because they are taught that dogs fall out of Islam’s sphere of pure creatures. Somehow, it is ‘right’ (in their minds) to beat up stray dogs because they can. Some heartless people kill stray dogs to test their guns. Since firing in the air is not enough for them, they look to fire at something that is made of flesh, but there is no case for killing a stray dog. In fact, such people think they are doing a service to society by killing an ‘impure’ creature. In Karachi, there is an island off the coast known as ‘kutta (dog) island’. People take stray dogs there and abandon them. They have no food, are surrounded by water they cannot drink and have no shade, as the island is bare of any form of vegetation. The animals kill each other for food, die of heat, of thirst, or trying to swim back to the shore, which is too far. Stray dogs can be neutered to stop reproduction, while animal lovers can adopt the rest of them. Anyone travelling on the GT Road would easily spot a dead dog or cat on the side of the road. Desperate crows that wander around for food feed on these dead animals when they do not find anything else. Animal adoption centres might be a distant dream for many animal rights enthusiasts, but a few people in our country are working on it. The Pakistan Animal Welfare Society is one of the voluntary organisations that is active against animal cruelty and there are many individuals who want to do their part in this regard but are unable to as there is no central platform. During the last five years, the bird-catching business has transformed into a mini-industry. People with big nets at Sheikhupura Road and near the Changga Manga forest lure birds by sprinkling food. The hungry birds that start their food search from the morning take the bait and are caught. Later, they are sold to different vendors that sell them on busy roads of the city. Freeing birds is an alternative for sadqa these days, but only a few people realise that several of them die in the process, which is considered a mere business loss. Crows, sparrows and other birds are confined in tiny cages until kindhearted people release them. So to sum it all up, we have brutal dogfights, donkey thrashing/overburdening, bird hunting, the bird-catching business, stray dog killing, the cat-avoidance tradition and still we have the audacity to think that our land will be blessed. Only a fool would think that these animals do not curse people as people curse one another when they are tortured or victimised. When animals suffer, they must be howling to someone about that too. If as Muslims we believe everything is created by Allah and on the final day, we would be questioned about the living beings around us, it is about time we started to treat animals as one of those beings. Western countries have risen during the centuries for their discipline and understanding about life. Islam taught us to be kind to animals several hundred years ago and today we have proved that we have forgotten what it takes to be a human, that is allowed to have the title of Ashraful Makhlooqaat (the best creation). People in the west are kind to animals; they take care of them and the ones who break laws against animal cruelty are penalised. Even experimenting on animals has been banned in many welfare states across the world, and here we are, still pelting stones at stray dogs, which shows the limitations of our spiritual and mental growth. Looking at the condition of a country where animals are treated with love and care, and the way things are in Pakistan where they face neglect and even outright cruelty, it will not be absurd for some God-fearing people to believe there is a curse on us! Curse or no curse, it is time to look hard at ourselves and prevent animal cruelty immediately. The writer is a staff member and an animal rights activist. He can be reached at theold313@hotmail.com