Adil Najam

The pictures that follow are graphic and horrific. So, please do not scroll any further if you think you cannot handle them.

These are pictures of a dog fight, taken yesterday outside the village of Lora in Abbottabad District. But such fights happen in many places in Pakistan. Not every day, but often enough for all of us to be incensed, to be disgusted, and to be angry about.

There are some who consider this to be a sport. They are wrong. Very very wrong. This is not sport. This is cruelty. This is inhuman. This is also illegal.

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890 is clear on this point: Section 3(a) reads as follows: “if any person overdrives, beats, or otherwise treats any animal so as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering, he shall be punished, in the case of a first offence, with fine… or with imprisonment. .. or with both.”

But – think about it – do we really need a law to recognize that what is happening in these pictures is just wrong. Very very wrong. Cruel. And illegal.

There are others who will tell us that this happens elsewhere too, including other places where it is technically illegal. In Latin America, in Russia, in Central Asia, and even in the United States. That is true. But that makes this what we see in these pictures (or what happens in those countries) no less wrong. No less cruel. No less inhuman. No less disgusting.