The grotesque mutilation of a cow in Jhelum cannot be brushed aside as a rural aberration or an isolated crime. It is the latest symptom of a national disorder that feeds on silence. From poisoned dogs in Sanghar to livestock beaten and filmed for social-media entertainment, Pakistan’s casual cruelty toward animals exposes something deeper than lawlessness. It exposes moral decay.
The world has taken note. The Animal Protection Index gives Pakistan an “E” rating overall and a “G” for farmed animal welfare, the lowest possible grade. For a country that prides itself on being agricultural, where livestock is integral to the economy and identity, such a score is an indictment of neglect and regression.
At the heart of this negligence is a law that should have been retired before Pakistan was born. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890, a colonial artefact written in a different era, still forms the backbone of animal-welfare legislation. Yes, fines were revised in 2018, but the law itself remains structurally archaic. It carries no modern enforcement mechanisms, no acknowledgement of animal sentience, and no real deterrent value. Its vagueness makes prosecutions rare and accountability weaker still. By refusing to replace this relic with meaningful legislation, successive governments have broadcast a clear message: animal suffering is inconsequential.
But the deeper rot lies not in the statute books but in society. Across towns and cities, citizens who feed or rescue animals, many of them women, are harassed, threatened, and even reported to the police. This hostility is, to state the obvious, rooted in ignorance, misplaced religiosity, and a collapse of civic empathy.
There is, however, one reminder that change is possible. The Police Animal Rescue Centre in Lahore has rescued more than 1,300 animals and secured multiple convictions. Its success proves that even outdated laws can protect the voiceless when there is institutional will. Sadly, an isolated effort cannot make up for systemic indifference.
Pakistan frequently invokes Islam’s compassion for all living beings. Yet our treatment of animals reveals a widening gap between what we preach and what we practice. A society is measured by how it treats those who cannot fight back. Right now, that measure is frighteningly low. *