Voiceless and Violated: Ella’s Story
We live in a world where gangs creating child pornography get away with their crimes. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when animal abuse goes largely unnoticed. Thanks to the tireless efforts of animal shelters and animal welfare organizations in Pakistan things are slowly changing. Unfortunately, they have reported a significant increase in cases of abandonment and assault during the countrywide lock down especially due to the misinformation about coronavirus. It is important to clarify that you cannot get it from cats or dogs but they can get it from you. Within this chaos, Ella’s story has emerged as a grim reminder of human depravity and the pathetic state of laws against animal abuse in Pakistan. Hint: there are none.
A few days ago, JFK Animal Rescue and Shelter on Facebook (@justiceforkiki1) posted about a dog and her puppies that she was going to rescue. This brave soul had hidden her five puppies to protect them from her rapists. Yes, you read that correctly. Ella was raised for rape by her “owners” and she’s not the only one. We have no idea how many puppies live through this horror until the day they die just within this particular area. Rescue volunteers have reported a strange attitude within this community that made them feel unsafe. The people there didn’t want Ella and her puppies to be taken away. After a huge argument, they stepped aside and all five puppies were saved rather than two being left behind as they had insisted. The shelter was responding to a call from an amazing lady from that area who had been monitoring the rapists for a year. She is determined to get justice for Ella and dogs who are suffering similarly. Despite reporting to the police, no action could be taken due to the lack of laws and evidence. This fearless lady, Kulsoom, and her sister are currently trying to gather evidence to expose the rapists. Since the last incident happened around four months ago, there weren’t any apparent signs of rape that would show up in a medical report.
They told the rescue team that five teenage boys have been taking her to empty shops and subjecting her to gang rape. These monsters tied up her muzzle and legs to prevent any escape attempts or protests. These ladies revealed that Ella had a mate that was killed by these boys and thrown in the gutter. It was heartbreaking to learn that three other puppies of Ella had already been abused and killed. Moreover, there was another dog before Ella who had been brutally raped to the point of death by these monsters and thrown in a dirty canal nearby. Another rescue organization found two abused puppies with broken jaws in the same area. They were given medical aid and are recovering right now. This is not a coincidence. Any place that tolerates animal abuse becomes a hub for such inhumane activities. Not only are these individuals committing such atrocities alone but entire groups are entertaining themselves by raping and assaulting defenseless street animals.
You might feel like this problem exists only in third world countries like Pakistan but so-called humans have learned to commercialize the pain of other living creatures through disgusting animal porn. This “product” has millions of consumers worldwide and it is readily available to everyone just like child pornography and “rape porn”. Our society has normalized pornography and it consumed by a huge population of teenagers (minors) and adults in Pakistan. Most people aren’t even aware of the link between sex trafficking and pornography. They cannot identify videos made from hidden cameras and lack of consent between the participants on-screen. A quick search proves that pornography is rife with the concepts of child abuse, incest and rape. In fact, these are extremely popular and porn websites don’t take action against videos uploaded without consent. You will find a lot of information on such cases if you Google it. In a country where marital rape is not criminalized, one doesn’t hold much hope for awareness about porn.
Why did I just go on a rant against porn? Well, our self-righteous nation doesn’t realize the dangerous effects of watching porn even if it is scripted. Besides addiction to masturbation and wrecking your sex life, it reduces the value of the humans on-screen to products available for purchase. This means that we don’t even equate watching naked people have sex to cheating on our spouses. On the other hand, we are furious when our spouse stares at another person with lust in their eyes or we catch them flirting with a colleague over text messages. Our sense of humanity and human relationships is so messed up that we have created our own version of reality that is far from the truth. The person we know or see in front of us is human but not those naked people on screen. Those are products! Domestic abuse has skyrocketed since the lock down begin with no escape for the victims. As Ayesha from ACF pointed out in her Facebook Live this week, animal abuse serves an indicator of violence against humans because those who abuse animals “graduate” to humans in a short span of time. It cannot get any worse than this. No wonder we treat animals as if they were objects.
For now, Ella and her puppies are safe at Todd’s Welfare Society (@TWSPakistan) but there are countless others like her who continue to suffer and die at the hands of the heartless. What can you do about this? Educate yourself, spread awareness, support welfare organizations, report abuse and teach others around you to care for animals. These lessons should be taught from a young age to empower the next generation and protect voiceless animals.
