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KARACHI: Up to 80% of female halal animals end up in slaughterhouses across Pakistan due to ineffective implementation of laws preventing the killing of reproductive animals, industry insiders say, raising food insecurity concerns and fear among meat exporters and other stakeholders that the government may soon need to import livestock due to domestic shortages.
Livestock is a key source of income for more than eight million rural families in Pakistan, who earn up to 40% of their income from this sector, which contributed 60.6% to the overall agriculture sector and 11.7% to the country’s GDP in 2019-20.
Pakistan last conducted a population survey of animals in 2006.
“Nearly 80 percent of female animals that can be used for reproductive purposes are slaughtered in the country every year,” Mian Abdul Hannan, chairman of the All Pakistan Meat Exporters and Processors Association, told Arab News on Tuesday.
An officer at the animal quarantine department at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, requesting anonymity, said the figure was as high as 90 percent.
“If the trend is not halted, Pakistan will have to import animals soon,” he said.
The Ministry of National Food Security acknowledged the problem, saying there were several laws regulating animal slaughter, though they needed to be enforced.
“These acts come under local governments for execution,” ministry spokesperson Dr. Javed Humayun said. “The Ministry of National Food Security and Research has already taken up the matter with the provinces and also discussed the issue in different stakeholders’ meetings. All provinces are taking necessary steps to avoid the slaughter of female animals for meat purposes. The Punjab Livestock Department is taking the lead in protecting useful animals for dairy.”
Meat exporters recently circulated a pamphlet addressing the president, prime minister and other government functionaries, bringing their attention to unchecked violations of local regulations governing animal slaughter and describing the situation as a “genocide” that would create an “acute shortage” of animals in the country.
Last month, a Lahore-based quarantine officer also wrote a letter to companies running slaughterhouses, asking them to cease the illegal practice.
“The country needs an effective mechanism to differentiate between productive, nonproductive and fit for human consumption animals since the farming community asserts it sells only those animals which are not useful to its members,” Dr. Mohsin Kiani, project manager at the Livestock and Dairy Development Board, told Arab News. “Due to the lack of such effective mechanisms our animal production is declining.”
Karachi’s Cattle Colony houses about a million milk producing animals, mostly buffalos, according to dairy farmers who frequently sell their female livestock without following laws governing the practice.
“About 0.8 million female animals end up in Karachi’s slaughterhouses every year,” Shakir Umar Gujjar, president of the Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association, told Arab News. “At the end of the 270-day lactation period, farmers sell these animals due to lack of space for recycling or reproductive purposes.”
Industry stakeholders believe the ongoing trend will soon create a shortage of milk and meat for human consumption.
“Female animals have been slaughtered for years without any check and the situation is so bad now that the country will soon need to import animals to meet the demand for milk and meat,” Dr. Alamdar Hussain Malik, former secretary of the Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council, told Arab News. “The country needs to take serious measures to save this important economic sector.”