Buried Alive: Animals Trapped as Lahore Bird Market is Demolished
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the city of Lahore awoke to the sound of bulldozers.
The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) had arrived at Bhati Chowk one of the city’s oldest and most established bird and pet markets to demolish what it called “illegal encroachments” on government land.
By sunrise, the Bhati Bird Market, which had stood for decades near Data Darbar, was nothing more than rubble.
Traders and shopkeepers who arrived later that morning were met with scenes of devastation: crushed cages, broken glass, and most horrifying of all the bodies of animals buried under debris.
Credit jfkanimalrescueandshelter
A Dawn Demolition Without Warning
According to multiple witnesses, the operation began around 4 a.m. Shopkeepers say they were given no formal notice and no time to remove their animals.
Many kept birds, cats, rabbits, and even puppies on the premises, animals that were entirely dependent on humans for survival.
“They came before dawn, without warning,” one trader told local media. “We begged them to stop, there were living creatures inside. But the bulldozers kept going.”
The Lahore Development Authority has since denied these claims, insisting that shopkeepers had already removed their animals before the operation began.
However, footage circulating on social media tells a different story. Videos show residents and rescuers pulling cages from under broken masonry, while injured animals are carried to safety.
Credit jfkanimalrescueandshelter
A Tragedy Beyond Commerce
Over 150 shops were destroyed in the demolition. The traders have lost their livelihoods, but the greater tragedy lies in the treatment of the animals, living beings treated as disposable property, buried alive beneath concrete and dust.
Animal welfare advocates have condemned the operation, calling for an investigation into whether any evacuation procedures were followed and whether animal welfare officers were present.
The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890 though archaic still obliges authorities to prevent unnecessary suffering. Yet in this case, it appears that compassion was the first casualty.
Credit jfkanimalrescueandshelter
The Silence That Follows
There has been little official acknowledgment of the suffering caused.
No numbers have been confirmed. No list of rescued or deceased animals has been released.
For the LDA, it was a routine clearance of state land. For the hundreds of animals entombed beneath that land, it was the end of their lives unheard, unseen, and unrecorded.
This silence speaks volumes about how animal life is valued.
It reveals how easily compassion is set aside in the pursuit of urban order and redevelopment and how far there is still to go in recognising animals as sentient beings rather than collateral damage.
A Call for Accountability and Change
Dog Desk Animal Action stands with Pakistan’s animal welfare organisations including Todd’s Welfare Society (Lahore), in calling for immediate accountability and reform.
No demolition, eviction, or redevelopment should ever proceed where live animals are present without a verified evacuation protocol.
Authorities must coordinate with registered welfare organisations to ensure the safe removal of animals, and independent observers must be present to oversee such operations.
This tragedy must not be repeated.
Credit jfkanimalrescueandshelter
We Remember Them
The animals of Bhati Bird Market did not choose their place in that market or the human systems that decided their fate. They deserved safety, dignity, and mercy.
Instead, they became victims of human negligence and indifference.
We remember them not as commodities, but as lives that mattered.
Credit jfkanimalrescueandshelter
What You Can Do
Share this story to help raise awareness of what happened in Lahore.
Support local animal welfare groups like Todd’s Welfare Society, who continue to rescue and protect animals across Pakistan.
Join us at Dog Desk Animal Action as we campaign for global accountability and compassion for all animals wherever they are, whatever the system that failed them.
Because until animals are protected in policy as well as principle, their lives will remain at risk not only from cruelty, but from silence.