Fw: (PK) British team to rescue dying horses in Karachi

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British team to rescue dying horses in Karachi

BY ADAM LUSHER Electronic Telegraph - Daily Telegraph

(Filed: 15/07/2001)

 

 

A BRITISH rescue mission from the London-based Brooke Hospital for Animals

has flown to Pakistan to try to save the lives of dozens of racehorses left

starving after a row over money and bureaucracy.

 

The International League for the Protection of Horses has raised £5,000 to

fund the rescue team as it works at Karachi racecourse, where 70

thoroughbreds are believed to have died of hunger and disease in recent

months.

 

The league, which is based in Norfolk, took action after learning that the

horses, among them winners of some of Pakistan's most prestigious races,

had become the victims of a dispute between the provincial government of

Sindh and the Karachi Race Club over an annual racing licence.

 

The racecourse was closed in March because the two parties could not reach

an agreement and since then many horse owners, deprived of their normal

income from racing, have found it impossible to afford fodder. More than

100 animals have been left struggling on " starvation diets " , according to

the charity, and of these 60 are seriously underfed.

 

The leader of the rescue team, which expects to be in Karachi for at least

a month, is Lt Gen Shah Rafi Alam, the director of Pakistan operations for

the Brooke Hospital. He said: " It is extremely depressing, for me as a

horseman, for anyone. These horses have been maintained, but on a very,

very minimal, starvation diet. "

 

Among the horses that will receive treatment is Great Shah whose owner has

disappeared without trace. The seven-year-old's victory honours include the

important 12-furlong Quiad-i-Azam Gold Cup but now, with the bones showing

through its stretched skin the animal is a forlorn figure, made worse by an

injured hoof that has received little or no treatment.

 

Gen Alam admitted: " He is looking bloody horrible. He is starving hungry.

There are about 60 horses that are underfed. You can see ribcages sticking

out, a lot of them are that way. Some will need treatment for colic, some

will need de-worming. It is quite alarming. "

 

Gen Alam, a 68-year-old former Pakistan Army officer, said about 370 horses

are still stabled in the sprawling 250-acre grounds around the racecourse,

and many of them are still in good condition.

 

" The horses belonging to the richer owners are ready to race next week. The

60 horses we are trying to help belong to poor owners. They depend on the

prize money and the betting. When it stops they can no longer afford £50 or

so a month to keep the horses. They have got to feed their families too. "

 

The general is prepared to act as an intermediary in the dispute between

the government of Sindh and the Karachi Race Club, but he admits that it

will be very difficult to resolve the matter. Horse racing has long been a

sensitive issue in Pakistan, where gambling is forbidden under religious

laws but officially tolerated, and the country has only three racecourses.

 

Javed Akhtar, the press minister at the Pakistani High Commission in

London, insisted this week that no horses had died and that the animals

were being properly cared for by the Sindh government. He said: " The

government is providing fodder and veterinary care from its own funds.

Total care is being taken of the horses. "