Dog culling in almost all the cities of Pakistan is widespread due to a lack of empathy and consideration for a life. The government of Pakistan kills about 350 dogs every day that makes up to 125,000 dogs annually.
There are no animal protection laws, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890 has not been updated and the maximum punishment of animal abuse and cruelty is 500 rupees fine. There are no criminal offense charges against animal abusers and an open policy of killing stray dogs yearly is opted by city management and municipal parties. Dogs are being culled, dragged behind wheels, raped, poisoned, beaten and pelted, poured with acid, hit and run, abused for pleasure as reported on various social media channels.
Faltoo sey Paltoo is an animal-centric awareness initiative that aims to highlight and sensitize the public towards animal welfare particularly stray dogs of Pakistan.
This campaign aims to project a parallel animal centric perspective on Lahore where their suffering is to be highlighted and existence identified as sentient beings. The goal is to map Lahore and further develop it spatially to intervene, protest and trigger the public towards the abuse against stray dogs.
The outreach project is divided into three parts; Creative Workshops, Awareness Walks and Silent Protests. Workshops over several weeks are planned with children in their communities where they are introduced to a dog and are encouraged to interact. Developing on the introduction they are engaged in seminars, drawing activities, sculptures, performances, and theatre based on narratives of the life of stray dogs. For the awareness walks, the city is mapped spatially in references to the reported cases of Dog Culling. The locations are revisited to be used as sites. While doing so we engage the community especially the children via discourse discussions and interaction to fight against the negative connotation about stray dogs and aware the general public about animal rights. Followed by this, silent protests were arranged in certain areas of Lahore where children were engaged as agents of change and pose as culled stray dogs. They recreate the spectacle wearing dog faces on roadsides to protest and trigger the general public on the issue; participating in the routine of daily life in public spaces and encouraging discussions and debate.
By bridging the gap between the children and the animal via creative tools and engagement as such, children are able to question and re-analyse their sensibility of a stray animal and become more aware of their treatment towards them. All of data is further condensed onto the website for archival and outreach purposes.
