Hira Jaleel, Pakistan's first animal attorney, advocates modern protection laws
Pakistan
Hira Jaleel, Pakistan's first animal attorney, advocates for modern protection laws
LAHORE (Web Desk) - On Dec 10 each year, people around the world celebrate the International Animal Rights Day. Advocates for animal rights try to convince people that all sentient species should be treated with kindness and respect.
The first attorney in Pakistan with an LLM in Animal Law, Hira Jaleel, on the significance of animal rights day said many people believed that animals were highly intelligent, had feelings, and were able to feel a range of emotions, including pain. It s necessary to highlight that animals, like people, deserve to have rights. She educates about Animal Legal Philosophy and International Animal Law at her alma mater, the Lewis & Clark Law School in Oregon, USA.
She added “There is no longer any question that animals are intelligent creatures, meaning they are able to feel pain and suffering as well as positive and negative emotions. They lead highly full lives that are incredibly rich in experiences and emotions. The injury we cause them affects them negatively on a physical, emotional, and psychological level.”
Animals have very close familial ties and are highly clever and social. When a loved one passes away, they are sad. They convey generational wisdom. Therefore, it’s crucial that we recognize that animals have legitimate interests that call for protection. Animals must be respected as members of our society and as members of our community, and they must be treated with the same dignity and respect as other weaker and vulnerable members of our society.
According to Jaleel Animals are not engrained in Pakistan’s political or judicial structures. She made the argument that just because they are not voters does not mean they are not affected by or subject to the actions of humans. They are extensively used in a variety of ways, being kept in chains inside homes or in awful conditions, or used for breeding only for the purpose of selling them.
She further added “In my opinion, animals should be given the freedom to have their interests and some rights to personal liberty, as well as the recognition, respect, and protection of their mental, behavioural, and physiological states.”
When discussing how animals are treated globally, Jaleel stated that no perfect nation makes an attempt to value them. She believes that mankind as a whole has not yet reached that state.
“We have made significant progress and there is a lot of dialogue about this problem, which wasn’t happening before, both in Pakistan and internationally in this moment, about what we owe to animals, how animals are hurt by human behaviours, how much moral concern we need to give them.”
