Pakistan’s acclaimed actor Ushna Shah with tears in her eyes, shared a harrowing incident of animal abuse in Karachi that she came across through a video.
Turning to her Instagram, the actor posted a video in which she was visible overwhelmed with emotions after having watched a tragic and brutal video of a dog being left to die a slow and painful death in Karachi.
“I just saw this viral video of a dog,” she began. “He was sleeping next to a building and someone was filming the dog from above.”
“Then, a security truck stops by, and guards step out, shoot the dog near the hind legs and leave,” she continued.
“And since it was not a directly-fatal shot, that dog was left to die a gradual death while wailing in excruciating pain, and there was blood everywhere and everyone was watching, the person filming the video was also watching but no one came forward to help the dog or euthanize him but just kept on watching a voiceless creature in pain.”
She went on further to say that if the dog was pestering someone in the society, it was only because it may have also been subject to abuse “because animals attack for survival, territories or for their defense.”
“They don’t attack unprovoked. Only humans do that,” she said.
Linking the incident to the crisis we have been stuck in during the coronavirus pandemic, Shah said: “There are lots of reasons being given about why this calamity of coronavirus has befallen upon us. Maybe this could also be a reason, to kill an animal heartlessly and then watching it suffer and this is happening everywhere across the country.”
“There is a false misconception that the coronavirus has spread because of them. Even before this virus, animals go through extreme abuse. This dog could have been sent to ACF [Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation], this dog could have even been euthanized, spayed or neutered or could’ve just been given to any animal organization but they only used a single bullet and did not even consider using a second to put him out the pain.”
She further questioned the lack of strict laws in Pakistan regarding animal abuse, adding: “if this is humanity then I am really ashamed to be human.”
