A Historic Light of Hope
On July 7, 2015, a historic act took place that can change the way people in Bangladesh treat animals forever. On the Tuesday before last, the police arrested three youths for abusing a street dog brutally last month, in the capital's Rampura area.
This simple act shows the massive and tremendous change brought to the nation by Rubaiya Ahmad and Obhoyaronno Animal Welfare Foundation. Since it's inception in 2009, Obhoyaronno and its founder, Rubaiya, have been making immense strides in animal welfare. In January 2012, Rubaiya successfully persuaded the government to end dog culling in Dhaka. Since then, the government has declared the city as the country's first no-cull city. Obhoyaronno has also been running the country's first CNVR programme in Dhaka with support from Dhaka City Corporation, Humane Society International and FAO.
Rubaiya came to know about the incident through people who rescued the dog, took down the names of the perpetrators and testified against them. The criminals, namely Johnny, Sobhan alias Shuvo and Imran, were caught beating Whitey (the dog) brutally, on June 16th. The incident was brought to animal lover, Noshin Nur's attention, by a boy named Ashik, who called for help around 8 pm at night, which was really late for immediate help to be given. Ashik also had to face threats from the criminals in question. Saima Feyruz, an animal rights activist, contacted three boys named Tanim, Zahid and Sourav, two of whom set out from Agargaon the moment they heard of the incident. They found the dog in Rampura, fighting for his life, and they rescued him from the spot, took him to the vet, Dr Siamak, and later to Obhoyaronno Clinic for treatment. The boys named him Whitey and took him under their care.
Three days later, despite the fact that it took almost 3 hours, Rubaiya finally managed to file a full fledged criminal case against the boys who abused Whitey. “The OC prompted to take action, except he wasn't sure how such an unprecedented case should be filed,” says Rubaiya. “After much deliberation, they decided to file a GD, followed by court ordered prosecution. Just as we were ready to leave the police station, the OC came running and had us change the GD into an FIR. By that time, he had made a number of phone calls and had a better understanding of how to proceed,” she says.
Lawyer Nadia Choudhury, who has fought for animal rights before, had been pursuing the case persistently. “We had filed an FIR under section 4 of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1920 and had a witness to support the case who also had the names of the offenders. The arrests were made after the police had completed their investigation in line with the information our witness had provided,” says Nadia. The maximum punishment for this offence is 3 months but the exact punishment these culprits will receive is at the discretion of the Court after hearing arguments from both sides. Nadia continues, “This first arrest means that people can no longer get away with abusing animals without facing the consequences. An official recognition of the seriousness of the crime of animal abuse means better recognition of the value of animals and their rights, and can work as a deterrent towards future abuse, creating a more compassionate society.”
The arrest of the youths shined the much needed light of hope for animal lovers and animal rights activists across the nation. It was a big step towards a change that we desperately need. But only jailing was never a good enough solution. ”There are hundreds of incidents of animal cruelty taking place all over Bangladesh and simply putting people behind bars is neither feasible nor is it going to solve the problem,” says Rubaiya. “In order to prevent animal cruelty effectively, we must show people the same compassion, kindness and understanding that we want people to show to animals. Our policy is rehabilitation not revenge,” she ends.
Thanks to Rubaiya Ahmad, Nadia Choudhury and all the animal lovers involved in rescuing and rehabilitating Whitey, we can finally see a glimpse of an animal-friendly Bangladesh. For if we aspire to be recognised as a great nation, we must remember that Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
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