Bedian villages were bemused on Friday, 10th April, 2015 as they gathered at Dera Alam al-Khayal, Ghawind Lahore with their donkeys to compete in a first-of-its-kind beauty contest for Donkeys. Responding to enthusiastic announcements made in local mosques asking donkey owners to take their donkeys to the Dera, villagers were curious to see what the commotion was all about. Passers-by in cars and motorbikes also stopped to see why so many donkeys had gathered in a big field near the BRB canal.
Used to the traditional donkey-racing contests, many donkey owners came prepared with their donkeys strapped to their carts ready for an Athenian-style savage ‘survival of the fittest’ race. To their surprise, they were informed that all they had to do was to take a walk around a rink with their donkeys.
Titled the “Donkey Beauty, Health and Happiness Competition” (Gadhay ka Muqabala e Husn, Sehat aur Khushali), donkey-owners were handed number badges and required to walk their donkeys around a rink where judges marked them for body condition, lesions, wounds, lameness and general well-being. A compere entertained the audience by giving a running commentary on each donkey and owner with details of the donkey’s name, habits, diet and residence. Whilst the judges compiled their decisions, the compere conducted a general ‘donkey quiz competition’ for the audience aimed at spreading awareness about care and respect for donkeys and animals in general. Prizes were distributed amongst the audience for the most correct and creative answers.
Prizes of harnesses, fodder and grain were then awarded to the three best donkeys. The programme concluded with all villagers singing the national anthem and promising to come better prepared for next time – both in terms of donkeys’ care and their own general knowledge about them.
In the 2006 census, it was reported that there were nearly 5 million donkeys in Pakistan. With increase in fuel prices, the use of donkeys as a means of transport has grown rapidly in the last ten years. Sadly, whilst the lifespan of a donkey is 40-50 years in other countries, in Pakistan, the average lifespan of a donkey is 10 years given the lack of knowledge about its health, dietary constitution and care.
The competition was organised and sponsored by the Alam al-Khayal Foundation. A private Foundation using its own private funds, its founder, Nudrat B. Majeed, a barrister cum philanthropist who has left her prosperous life in the west and returned to Pakistan to join “the mission of many in Pakistan who work for civil society reform”, Ms. Majeed believes that society’s issues are resolved if its individual’s spirit is evolved. The Foundation’s work in the education, environment and humanitarian aid sector is undertaken with a view to evolving individuals’ spirits.
Responding to the general mistreatment and roughness towards animals, she dismisses it when people tell her that “in Pakistan, people are suffering so much, who has time to worry about animals?” “We have to overcome this defeatist, narrow-minded, attitude and understand that the two are not mutually exclusive. “We simply have to work on all grounds at the same time, all the time. If we wait till every individual in Pakistan is in a happy, healthy state before we address the happiness and health of animals then we wait till the Day of Judgement … and as far as human duties towards animal rights are concerned, it will be, quite simply, too late! What has to be done, however small or insignificant, has to be done now.”
Animal rights and respect is part of the Foundation’s national movement for “Enlightened Education”. The Foundation announced that the competition would be held 3 times a year and, gradually, would be expanded to include other equine animals, dogs, cats and camels.
