Chirping and meowing towards stardom

KARACHI: Animals and birds at Karachi’s Empress Market are quacking and meowing their way towards stardom as they are increasingly being cast in drama serials and films.

Boasting as the biggest pet market in the city, the Empress Market houses all kinds of animals and birds that can either be bought as pets or rented for various purposes.

Muhammad Rafique, an owner of a bird shop, told The Express Tribune that he has been renting birds for shows, films and performances for the past 25 years.

“There are very few bird shops that let us rent now as it is a big hassle to take the birds to the venue and bring them back after a day,” he said, adding that he has learned the ropes from experience.

Common birds, such as pigeons, roadside birds, mynahs and parrots, can be rented for anywhere between Rs20 and Rs100 for 24 hours while the more expensive ones, such as ducks and turkeys, are rented for up to Rs300 for a day, Rafique said.

According to Rafique, the practice of renting birds has increased since the past year and a half when the media boom took place. More people are producing programmes that use these birds in the background, he added.

Another bird shop owner, Muhammad Saleem Baloch, told The Express Tribune that mostly private filmmakers and private channels rent birds. Even though the business is small in scale, it often results in a good sale for the owner.

“If the bird dies or flies away, then we get a full payment,” said Baloch.

Since the more exotic ones are used for drama scenes, usually without their wings cut, there are greater chances that they will fly away and the producer will have to make the complete payment to the owner.

“If they have rented a fine pair of ducks that sell for Rs800 then we get the whole amount if they lose them,” he pointed out. “The birds that you see in telefilms are ours,” exclaimed a worker at Baloch’s shop.

Some unique birds, that hardly any customers come to buy, are exclusively used for this purpose.

Lying at a far corner inside Rafique’s shop amid cages of all sorts of species of birds is the cage of a black vulture, which no one seems to be interested in buying but many come to rent.

“This is a special kind of vulture from Mongolia that someone sold to me about two years ago,” he boasted. Local vultures are usually golden-brown in colour so this is a special one, he added. The distribution of black vultures is also restricted all over the world and it is harder to find one in Pakistan.

Rafique bought the bird for Rs2,500 but he is willing to sell it for Rs3,000 as it is a predator bird with a lot of added expenses. The black vulture earns him Rs200 a day when it is rented out.

Almost all shops in Empress Market are now open for renting pets as they see it as a good side-business. “Instead of keeping our animals in the cages we can at least send them for a day and earn something,” explained Shahbaz, who sells cats, dogs and other animals at his shop. While people come to rent his animals as well, there is less demand for bigger animals than there is for birds.

Most of the animals that have become too old and have failed to impress animal lovers, either die or are sent for rebreeding to local breeding farms, located mostly near the Super Highway.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2010.