Imagine this,
You’re walking around in the city, completely oblivious to everything around you, when all of a sudden a stray dog appears in front of you. What’s your reaction?
Panic? Fear?
Well, let’s focus on the “stray” a little more; it has a limp, it’s not a threat at all, is actually whimpering from the pain and slowly drags itself away from you.
Now, you’ve walked past the animal without doing anything. That’s great; it was very brave of you, since you might’ve been fearing an attack.
But, a lot of people don’t often do that, in-fact the moment they spot a stray animal the primal response of most of the people would be to attack it and make it go away, irrespective of its injury. Some uneducated youngsters actually chase injured animals and torture them further; a large portion of our society focuses on actually attacking the helpless creatures, instead of letting it go about with its business, since they consider it to be ‘fun’.
It’s pretty common to step across road-kill animal carcasses, or animals close to death, with their wounds being eaten by maggots; it’s a gruesome sight, but it’s something that is pretty common in our country. Due to the lack of general awareness of animal rights, such instances have grown instead of being mitigated and controlled.
Now, to combat these problems and to bring about awareness amongst the youth of our country, one of the leading societies in the National University of Science and Technology (NUST): ‘The NUST Environment Club’, decided to organize a mini-petting zoo, focused solely on Canines.
The Petting Zoo took place on the 12th of December, 2018 from 1 P.M. – 5 P.M., underneath the Canopy facing SADA (School of Art Design and Architecture), in the Concordia 1 Café. Prior to the event, the required décor was being arranged; since the NUST Environment Club focuses on zero-waste and waste reduction, instead of printing a normal plastic panaflex- which isn’t bio-degradable and is hazardous to the environment- they used a large cloth/fabric which was painted upon and looked absolutely stunning. Multi-Colored chart-papers were used to create a lively atmosphere in the area, and various photos and polaroid’s of Animals were used as part of the decorations.
On Social Media, the Hashtag #TheyDeserveBetter was used which conclusively showcased the main intentions behind the entire event: that animals deserve better, the strays deserve better, and how animals should be treated with the proper respect and love that they deserve. Since they can’t talk or utter words, we’re responsible for them and their well-being.
As soon as the clock struck 1:00, students started gathering around the venue, inquiring about the animals and were visibly excited. This excitement was proven later on, because as soon as the first dog arrived everyone started smiling and laughing. They appeared to get a new lease of life and started signing up on the registration desk, in a bid to meet and play with Boxer- the first dog to show up.
Boxer, a huge german shepherd, was brought to the venue by the Margalla Kennel Club. Students came close to it, some visibly afraid but still made attempts to pet it, whereas some were more confident and even hugged and shook hands with the animal.

Shortly afterwards, while people were still fascinated by boxer, the second canine arrived! A Small Pekingese dog, its cuteness attracted more students and the crowd increased exponentially, slowly awaiting their turn to enter the zoo.

An Instagram Photo Frame was designed by the management and people picked up the Pekingese or sat down with Boxer, while they posed for photos.

The influx of students didn’t stop there! Soon after, the third and final dog of the evening, a Black Belgian Shepherd came and the crowd peaked. Students, faculty and even children from the NUST Special Learning School came and enjoyed spending time with their furry friends.

A Donation Box was present during the duration of the event, and everyone was generous enough to deposit any sort of change or sum of cash which they could provide. The Money was collected and given to the ‘People’s Animal Care Trust’ and ‘Save the Strays’, two causes who had their representatives present in the Petting Zoo and guided the students on how to treat the Dogs and taught the crowd about animal rights.
The Event Heads for the Petting Zoo were Ms. Adeena Tahir and Mr. Jaffar Abbas, sophomores in the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE).
They were quoted to have said, “We speak a lot about environmentalism and caring for our surroundings, but we fail to acknowledge how animals are also a major constituent of the ecology and they also ought to be treated with care, compassion and love.”
By 5 O’clock, the event reached its conclusion and animals were taken back to their homes. Everyone who took part in this venture and participated in this event were visibly very happy and enjoyed the Zoo, some students are even reported to have missed their classes and labs just so they could witness the event. In total, according to the registration desk, around 800+ people came to this event and it’s safe to say that they all loved it.
This goes to show how just a small bit of enlightenment into certain topics can go a long way and inspire a new generation of enthusiasts and change-makers, the NUST Environment Club was definitely successful in achieving just that.
They aim to organize more events for community service and environmentalism, and we hope that they receive the same response as the one they got with the help of this one.