Animals do have lives

Bangladesh may be developing in all the parameters according to numerous international standard organisations and research firms, but how much development have we witnessed regarding human stance towards animals? This question will have multiple answers, nevertheless, no one will be able to come up with an upbeat reply.
Rakibul Haq Emil is an architect by profession, but being an architect has not stopped him from being empathetic towards animals. Emil and his friends along with a group of animal welfare activists run an emergency animal rescue and rehabilitation centre named People for Animal Welfare (PAW) at Mohammadpur area of Dhaka city. Youth Express interviewed Emil  recently to know more about him and PAW.
What is your view towards ethical animal treatment?
All animals are sentient. But to answer your question firstly I would like to say that animal welfare especially in a developing country like Bangladesh is neglected. We have not seen any sincere initiative regarding this issue until Obhoyaronno (first ever animal welfare organisation in Bangladesh) came into being.
Majority of the people of this country are confused about what to do with animals and how to treat them. A limited percentage of people treat animals unethically or abuse them. The ethical and compassionate treatment to animals are not only for the domesticated ones but also applicable for the stray ones.
What is PAW? How did you manage to kick off such an initiative?
We started from our own backyard. In order to be connected with the similar minded crowd and raise awareness, we built a common platform. Our 'Voice of animal welfare' and 'Fund raising for treatment of stray animals' are successful online ventures in social network sites. Our initial attempts were mostly raising funds targeting medical treatment for deeply wounded stray animals. Many people came forward with their contribution. With the help of generous people we are slowly going forward.
Successful cases that we handled with our limited capacity gave us the ultimate boost to go for something bigger than better. We exchanged our views and tried to learn from each other. After all these days, now, we are able to take a few steps towards our desired destination of our dream organisation, PAW (People for Animal Welfare).
What exactly PAW has to offer to the society and most importantly how it caters to the stray animals?
If I talk about the stray animals, in Bangladesh the ownerless dogs and cats are known as stray animals. Both these animals are social animals and love to be around human beings. Hence, our objective is to spread passable humane education. For this we are planning a mass campaign which will be in effect soon. We would like to promote an animal cruelty-free lifestyle and establish rehabilitation for wounded animals. Another challenge we are facing right now is the initiation of animal adoption in Bangladesh. Whenever any animal is injured, sympathetic persons bring them to our centre. We provide the best possible treatment with fostering to those animals. After that when the animal is cured, no one responds to take them and we face difficulty to release that animal as we are emotional too. Since then we have started to promote community releasing. We gradually release the animal to a community and make local people aware about animal welfare and receive profound response.
How can you ensure animal welfare in a country where human lives are exposed to copious troubles? What sort of cases do you receive in general?
Though people in Bangladesh are dealing with frequent battles every single day to survive, still they are not intolerant towards animals as far as I know.  We receive cases of animal or stray dog or cat injury due to reckless driving. We hardly find any case of deliberate human abuse. Then again there are heartless people around.
Through Facebook we have been able to build an intense pool of young people who are on their toes when any news of animal accident or abuse comes to our notice. In spite of numerous hiccups in daily lives, most of the people are extremely sincere when it comes to a dog or cat injury.
Let me cite you 2/3 examples to explain the situation further. One day a CNG driver came to our centre crying and holding an injured dog at his arms. A rickshaw ran over her hind legs. The driver was desperate to fix the problem. In spite of being a busy human being, he rushed for her treatment only because the puppy lived and played near his garage and was attached emotionally with him.
Another corporate officer visited us the other day evading his office works with an injured puppy. He said he had seen the puppy crawling on the streets with pain and could not resist lending his hand out for help. So you see, we encounter with numerous good people who can really work in a collective fashion in order to establish a secured place for both humans and animals to live together.
Human beings are the most powerful creations indeed. A little bit of compassion and the approach to do good may make a world of a difference to the animals who need our support to sustain their living in this planet.