By Hira Jaleel
On August 10, 2023, Parliament passed the Islamabad Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management Act, 2023. Replacing the Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation, and Management) Ordinance 1979, the law intends to reinforce wildlife and environmental managements in the federal capital. When revealing the law’s passage on Twitter, Mr. Salman Sufi, Head of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit declared that the costs “ensures no wildlife can be kept privately as pets, abused in Islamabad.”
A closer evaluation of the text of the law shows that the devil remains in the information, and the federal government has a hard roadway ahead if it is severe about eliminating personal wild animal ownership in Islamabad.
The Leopard Incident
Earlier this year, a leopard was captured on video running around Islamabad’s DHA Phase II community. It took the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board and the Capital Development Authority more than 5 hours to catch the huge cat, throughout which 3 individuals were hurt. While there was mass opinion that the leopard was independently owned by a resident, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board claimed that the animal was a wild leopard who had actually wandered off into a house. The concept that the leopard might have been independently owned was unsurprising to numerous, offered the increasing pattern of keeping huge cats as animals in Pakistan.
Pakistan has a huge cat crisis. According to the CITES Trade Database, in between the years 2005-2020, the Federal Government provided authorizations for the import of 241 African lions, of which 38 were imported to be reproduced in captivity, 88 were imported for zoos and 77 were imported for ‘commercial’ functions. These figures do not consist of other unique huge cats that might have been imported, such as tigers or hybrids. Furthermore, report show that in 2019, 300 lions were being kept as animals in the city of Karachi alone. Over the previous couple of years, there have actually been duplicated reports of lion cubs being strolled on the streets, lions being brought into veterinary workplaces and individuals driving around largely inhabited cities with huge cats in the rear seat.
Safety Concerns
Private ownership of huge cats generates severe human safety and animal well-being issues. In 2019, a man set his pet lion on an electrician who was requiring earnings for his work. In 2021, an animal lion attacked and injured a 10-year-old boy in Karachi’s Gulberg location. These occurrences are not one-off cases however are emblematic of an ever-growing pattern of keeping huge cats such as lions, tigers, and leopards as animals, typically in suburbs.
These animals are often kept chained or connected in yards or in cages insufficient to fulfill their physical and social requirements. Because of the risk they posture, huge cats are often constantly drugged or sedated, or might even have their claws and teeth drawn out. Animal abuse is likewise an issue. In May 2021, a video portraying a man violently beating a lion cub went viral on social networks. It is uncertain if the man was ever prosecuted for the abuse.
New Law Still Allows Owning Wild Animals
The brand-new Islamabad Wildlife Act supposedly tries to resolve this issue, a minimum of in Islamabad. However, the law is slightly worded and weakly framed. It forbids anybody from keeping a wild animal in captivity unless permitted by law. This is not an outright bar or restriction on having wild unique animals, since the law, guidelines, or guidelines made under it might still permit such belongings. Indeed, the law itself probably permits imported wild animals to be kept hostage, as talked about listed below.
The Act likewise needs that within 3 months of the law entering into force, anybody having a wild animal needs to give up the animal to the Board for Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management, stopping working which the Board can powerfully take the animal. Since it is extremely not likely that individuals will willingly surrender their unique animals under this Act, the law will just succeed in its intent to eliminate captive wild animals from personal belongings if the Board is actively imposing this arrangement and taking unique wild animals. Furthermore, it is uncertain what the Board plans to do with the animals gave up or took, thinking about that the variety of unique animals in personal belongings in Pakistan likely far surpasses the Board’s capability to house them. Zoos in Pakistan have actually likewise been lacking space to house specific types of unique animals, particularly huge cats. The Board will require an extensive strategy to house these animals prior to it takes them.
The Act likewise forbids the establishment of any breeding center for wild animals by the economic sector. However, it permits and manages the establishment of public sector centers for the breeding of wild animals, consisting of unique animals. This pleads the concern of what interest the Federal Government has in breeding unique animals, and what such centers can do with those animals under the law. The Act likewise permits “licensed facilities” to utilize specific types for “research and development”, a term that the law leaves undefined. Effective application of the legislation will just be possible with rigorous enforcement and clear secondary legislation.
Allows Importing Exotic Wild Animals
In regards to importing wild animals from abroad, sadly, the law does not forbid the import of unique wild animals however rather needs that prior to importing a living wild animal, the requisite authorizations be obtained from the Board and nation of export.
Firstly, the requirement to obtain suitable authorizations prior to importing unique wildlife is already present under existing legislation: the Pakistan Trade Control of Fauna and Flora Act 2012, which uses to Islamabad. Secondly, this arrangement develops confusion within the law since it does not define whether the import of live animals is just enabled particular factors, nor does it state that just accredited centers can import live wild animals. As an outcome, the law appears to suggest that as long as one has the requisite import and export authorizations, anybody can import a live unique animal to be kept in captivity.
No Measures to Protect Wild Animals in Facilities
Lastly, the brand-new law is woefully quiet on any animal well-being steps to be taken by certified centers housing wild animals. While the Act makes it an offense to “injure” wild animals, it entirely stops working to resolve the myriad of damages that befall captive wild animals, consisting of absence of adequate housing and space, failure to supply species-specific food, water, and mental enrichment, absence of access to veterinary care and leaving the animals’ behavioral, social and physiological requirements unmet.
Animals are intricate social and psychological animals, and a basic arrangement forbiding injury is not adequate to resolve the requirements of wild animals in captivity. Admittedly, the federal government declares to have actually been dealing with a brand-new Federal Animal Welfare Bill accommodating animal well-being. However, that costs has actually not been revealed therefore it is uncertain if it would even use to wild animals, hostage or otherwise.
Given the across the country business market growing around huge cat import, sale, and purchase for personal belongings, there is no room for incremental policy in this sphere. Federal legislation requires to resolve and entirely prohibit the import, export, inter-provincial transportation, sale, purchase, breeding, and belongings of unique animals, particularly huge cats.
Enforcing New Law is Key
Instead of a strong law punishing this perilous market, the Islamabad Wildlife Act uses slightly worded arrangements that appear not likely to alter the status quo. However, with any law, enforcement is a crucial piece of the puzzle that assists the legislation sink or swim. Looking ahead, it stays to be seen how this law will be implemented within Islamabad.
Wild animals are magnificent animals who advise us of the marvel and power of the natural world. Keeping them restricted and enabling them to suffer is not just our ethical failure however is likewise an extremely genuine public safety threat. Failure to act upon this front has actually already led to a blossoming huge cat population in Pakistan. The legislature and executive require to act in tandem to avoid more damage to animals and individuals.
About The Author
Hira Jaleel is a Teaching Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Center for Animal Law Studies. She has actually likewise thoroughly prosecuted on behalf of animals in Pakistan. Hira was co-counsel in a case prior to the Lahore High Court versus indiscriminate culling of street dogs by state authorities. The case led to the formula of a provincial dog contraception policy, which ended the barbaric practice of culling dogs and changed it with a Trap Neuter Vaccinate Release program.
