Deer injured during shifting to sanctuary

Islamabad:A rare female deer got badly injured by a furious male deer when the administration of the Islamabad Zoo was transporting animals to safe sanctuaries in line with the directives of the Islamabad High Court.

The incident caused panic as the female deer was lying on the ground and feeling pain and discomfort. The veterinary doctor immediately provided initial medical treatment to female deer who was bleeding from head and stomach. According to the administration of the zoo, the male deer suddenly got angry and started stabbing his horns on the head and stomach of the female deer.

The process of transporting animals to safe sanctuaries was started when the Islamabad High Court in May ordered the release of caged animals that were kept in inhumane conditions at the Islamabad Zoo. A number of complaints surfaced some weeks back regarding poor treatment with animals that were kept in the zoo.

Then the animal rights advocates and social activists took to social media and shared photographs of the animals including popular elephant Kaavan, crocodiles, deer and Himalayan bear and highlighted their poor living conditions.

The issue of poor condition of animals at the Islamabad Zoo always caught attention of people from all walks of life. Besides Kaavan, a video of a bear gasping for breath in the scorching heat was widely shared last year. The year before that, another companionless bear died due to an apparent brain tumour. In 2018-19, several neelgais died from a suspected viral outbreak. Some months before that, six deer were killed by a wolf that broke into their enclosure.

The animal rights activists maintain that the exotic animals are brought into the country with great fanfare; only to leave the world prematurely and unceremoniously.