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PAKISTAN-ANIMALS-DOGS
Pakistan fishermen feed islands full of strays
KARACHI, June 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – More than a dozen decrepit dogs splash
into the Arabian Sea as the small wooden boat approaches. They know the
fishermen’s mission: bringing food and water for the canine population of one
of Karachi’s “dog islands”.
The boat, powered by an old jeep engine, stops when the water is still
waist-high, two fishermen jumping from it to wade ashore the low, barren,
waste-covered beach, whose only inhabitants are barking their welcome.
The island, known as Dingy or Buddo, is one of dozens populated by dogs
that line the shore south of the sprawling port megacity.
Conservative figures estimate the feral dog population of Karachi could
number up to 35,000.
With animal rights at their nadir and religious sentiment in the Muslim
country partly to blame for a prejudice against dogs, the figures spark a
brutal culling each year that sees bodies pile up in the streets, rotting in
the sweltering heat as they wait to be bulldozed away.
The islands, despite their lack of food and fresh water, have become a
sanctuary, an alternative where estimates suggest hundreds of dogs avoid the
cull.
But their survival depends almost entirely on the supplies brought to them
by Karachi’s fishermen as they trawl the coast.
“We see them standing at the shore of the island in hope of food from us.
So we feel their silent call,” says Abdul Aziz, a 30-year-old fisherman,
after feeding the dogs on Dingy Island some pancakes and water left over from
their own supplies.
It is not known for sure who first brought dogs to the islands, but
fishermen believe they were transported by villagers along the coastal areas
seeking to save them from the cull.
Sometimes they scavenge dead fish that float ashore, or smaller animals on
the outcrops. In desperation, they have been known to turn on each other for
survival, the fishermen say.
With no fresh water source, compelled by thirst, they have also been known
to drink the brackish water that forms in pools along the island shores,
underscoring the urgency of the fishermen’s mission.
On Dingy Island, the dogs leap around Aziz and his colleague Mohammad
Dada, standing on their hind legs and pawing at the pair in the scramble for
food and water.
Puppies are overrun by the larger dogs. But the kind fishermen make sure
even the smallest get a share.
“A human being is nothing without humanity,” Aziz says, looking at the
island, where plastic bags and a syringe lie among the hungry creatures.
“When we feel the pinch of hunger and thirst, they also must be feeling
it.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/0938 hrs