Animal rights organizations call for the closure of zoos

Lahore: Organizations working for animal rights and welfare in Pakistan are calling for the complete elimination of zoos or changing the method of keeping animals and birds in cages.

These demands intensify when there is news of the death of a rare animal in a zoo, like the death of an elephant in the Karachi zoo.
Aniza Khan Umarzai, the spokesperson of NARA, a coalition of NGOs working for animal welfare and protection in Pakistan, says that it is not right to keep wild animals and birds in cages.

She says that in a country like Pakistan where there are no international SOPs for zoos, keeping animals and birds in cages is a torture for them.
Aneza Khan Umarzai said that other methods can be adopted for education and entertainment related to wildlife. Digital media, hologram technology can be used.

He says that there is a need to promote the idea of ​​safari instead of traditional zoos where animals live in enclosures but they are better than iron cages.
In the opinion of local university students visiting Lahore Zoo for entertainment, animals should not be kept in cages, but the demand to close zoos is also not correct.

MPhil student Hafsa Fayyaz said that it is true that it is not right to keep animals especially tigers, lions and other animals of the same species in cages, but these animals cannot be left in the natural environment because many animals have already become extinct. .

Another student, Isha Hijab, said that zoos are important for entertainment as well as research, with animals kept in zoos generally having longer lifespans than those found in the wild. The students suggested that there is a need to create a semi-natural environment in zoos.

In Lahore Zoo, many valuable animals including elephants have died due to various reasons including inappropriate environment. According to experts, captive animals suffer from various diseases including mental stress, but director Lahore Zoo Azim Zafar Battar says that zoos have many benefits.

He said that if there are 1,000 animals in Lahore Zoo, the breeding of 800 animals has increased and their health is better. But zoos have been unable to protect a few large animals like the elephant. It is not correct to demand that zoos should be closed on the basis of this one failure.

He said that the reason for the failure to take care of other animals, including elephants, is that we do not have trained staff and a suitable environment to keep these animals. Of course, these animals can also be kept in zoos.
He said that many species of deer had become extinct in the natural environment of Punjab, the number of peacocks was decreasing, but due to breeding in zoos, now a large number of other species including Chinkara, Uryal, black deer are present in the natural environment and peacocks. Also visible.

In response to a question, he said that there is no natural environment in Pakistan for some animals, especially lions and other animals of this species.
Importantly, none of the zoos in Pakistan is a member of the World Organization of Zoos, while all provinces have separate rules and regulations for keeping and caring for animals in zoos.