Treat them right: Struggle to win rights for beasts of burden

Mistreated animals find a saviour in Hyderabad fighting a legal battle for their rights.

HYDERABAD: A staggering 4.7 million households in Pakistan depend on working animals for livelihood. They carry unimaginable loads, yet are beaten and underfed. But a 61-year-old tailor is actively working to change the situation for the rights of these animals.

In a country where exploitation of even human labourers seldom raises eyebrows, the idea seems out of place. But Barkatullah is bent upon making the impossible possible. He has spent a long part of his life fighting animal abuse, creating awareness and paying for food and health of sick and abandoned working animals. He now has zeroed in on spearheading a drive for legal and institutional reforms.

If Barkatullah’s dream is realised, beasts of burden like horses, mules, donkeys and camels will be given labour rights. They will have fixed working hours, lunch breaks, training, medical care, furriers and dentists. They will not be put excessive weight upon, forced to work when they are sick or injured and will be fed properly.

Becoming an animal saviour

Barkatullah grew up in the vicinity of Hyderabad’s main Tower Market - the centre of activity for the animal carts. He recalls that “there used to be water troughs with fodder in all the market places. While the handlers were busy with the consignment dealers, animals had plenty of time to eat and quench their thirst.” However now, he observes, they are neither fed adequately nor given due time for rest.

Useful but misused

According to the municipality’s record, there are some 10,000 donkey carts and over 2,000 horse carts in Hyderabad while the camel carts number only a few hundreds. But Barkatullah disputes these figures as grossly underreported.

The animals are used to transport a wide range of goods. Donkeys outnumber other beasts of burden for they are bought comparatively cheaper and keeping them is also less expensive than horses and camels.

For Barkatullah the contention is over the way these animals are ill-treated while employed in the carriage work. “The handlers deliberately cause injury to the donkeys, prod sticks in their injuries, twist their tails and cause them pain in many other ways. This is all done to make them easier to control while climbing up or down steep slopes or carrying overload.”

The owners and handlers use coconut coir ropes and synthetic material as harness instead of cotton fabric or other natural materials. This type of harness causes injuries around the hips, thighs and belly. They put extra weight on them by using the four-wheel cart instead of two-wheel cart.

Offended locals

Over the last four years since 2009 when he began to sue the owners and handlers, he has got convicted nearly two dozen people while three others have been declared absconders.

But Barkatullah has ended up upsetting owners of animals. His house was attacked around five months ago when attackers fired shots at his residence.

“He keeps on nagging the poor horse and donkey cart-riders without a reason. We take care of our animals as much as we take care of ourselves,” says elderly Naeem Qureshi, one of the representatives of the cart-riders in the Tower Market.

Animal laws?

A weak law and a complete lack of enforcement encourage the fearless cruelty. Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890, a person who kills an animal in a cruel way is punishable with Rs100 fine or up to three months imprisonment. Employing a sick or infirm animal or beating, overloading or torturing it brings only Rs50 penalty or imprisonment of up to one month. The Act was revised in 1937.Today this penalty is hardly one tenth of what the cart-riders earn per day.

The Criminal Procedure Code shows some sections with animals like 289, 428, 429 and 430. But there are no specific provisions for working animals.

Also there is an absence of an enforcement authority. A municipality official Akram Rajput recalls that until the Ayub Khan government, the municipal staff used to be a watchdog over the working and domestic animals. “There was one dhaggi (cow) group which would catch stray cows and buffaloes and fine their master for letting them go astray.”

The police have legal authority to enforce laws, but do not take action against the offenders.

Barkatullah has planned to seek the court’s help. He is preparing a petition for the Sindh High Court for reforming the 1890 Act according to present times and create authorities for regulation.

“I am a tailor and not aware of the nitty-gritty of law. I am consulting people who have knowledge.” He is hoping to file the petition by the month of Ramazan or after Eid because he is busy taking orders for his tailor shop.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2013.