Pakistan: tanners ask for ban on live animal exports
The Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) asked four provincial High Courts and Islamabad High Court to issue a ban against the exportation and smuggling of live animals.
Khurshid Alam, chairman of the PTA told local media that the Federal Ministry of Livestock and Dairy Development failed to take any immediate action to stop exports and smuggling despite assuring the PTA they would in a meeting on June 27, 2011. Mr Alam said the core issue of the export/smuggling of live animals from Pakistan to Iran and Afghanistan is based on statistics. He announced the launch of a campaign with the financial support of all sector associations in an effort to counter the smuggling and export of live animals.
He said the legal export of live animals from Pakistan to Iran and Afghanistan, which has recently been allowed by the government, resulted in shortage of raw skins for the domestic industry and increasing meat prices in Pakistan for the general masses. “The concrete measures would ensure availability of basic raw materials to leather sector,” he said.
Agha Saiddain, chairman of the PTA Skin and Hide said around 20,000 live animals were being smuggled from the country on a daily basis.
