This law is for those souls who do not regard animals as living things and treat them with cruelty. The laws of Pakistan take care of the safety of animals by punishing those who do wrong to these innocent creatures.

Section 428 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 provides punishment for those who kill an animal with intention to cause wrongful loss or damage to any person by injuring any animal. It says:

Whoever commits mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering useless any animal or animals of the value of ten rupees or upwards, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.

This means that every animal is protected from being killed with the intention to cause loss. Here, the intention to cause damage is very important. If let’s say, a veterinarian was to put a diseased dog out of his misery, he would not be liable since his intention was not to cause damage. Similarly, by killing a cow for meat or for sacrificing it on Eid, one would not end up in a jail. But if someone does it for fun, or just because he does not like animals, he will be liable for punishment.

The police is empowered to lodge an FIR against the offender, and he will face a full fledged trial before being finally sentenced to up to 2 years of jail or fine. There are other laws in place to prevent cruelty to animals while they are kept/ owned by someone, but this is a topic for another article.