Donkeys having a hard time in Karachi – another one ‘beaten’, injured

KARACHI: Electioneering is intensifying as polls are just a week away, but a dangerous yet weird trend is cropping up in form of ‘torturing of donkeys’ with a political aim.

A picture of a donkey went viral on the social media two days ago, showing him badly bruised after he was reportedly beaten by political activists to offend a rival party. They [activists] wrote a name of a rival political leader on the donkey and thrashed him ruthlessly. Outpouring of condemnations ensued on Twitter and Facebook against people who tortured the innocent animal for their own evil gains.

Today, another donkey is found to have been tortured by unknown persons and it was handed over by some citizens to rescue team of Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF) working for animal shelter.

With the upcoming elections looming upon us, no one is spared from the wrath of this time…not even the most helpless of animals. This is a hate crime. A #donkey beaten to pulp, punched in the face and abdomen several times, nose broken, kicked all ove.. https://t.co/OIKM2oRSuu pic.twitter.com/it2Fgct9DT

— ACF Animal Rescue (@ACFAnimalRescue) July 16, 2018

The NGO on its social media page said: “Another day, another story of abuse. We do not know if it was related to anything political…all we know is that it is unimaginably horrific abuse at the hands of our people.”

“This donkey was reported to us from Gulshan-e-Iqbal… It appears he has been pelted and beaten on the head repeated by jagged edge objects or stones. His skull is completely visible, maggots have eaten all the flesh within it. His left eye has been gouged out,” the post reads.

“He was bleeding so profusely we had to let it flow into buckets. We ensured his bleeding has stopped, given pain killers, maggots removed and wound thoroughly cleaned.”

“Whether political or not, this is still a hate crime at the hands of our people,” the NGO further wrote.

“Where are the laws that protect animals? Why have they been forgotten or perhaps, never implemented properly in the first place?” it asked.

“Raise your voices. Don’t let this be the future for our children,” ACF urged.

Here’s what PTI tweeted after it was accused of not reining its activists over torture of the animal, however the party denied that any of its worker was involved in the assault.