Mustafa Yazdani
In a back garden in Lahore, two high school students are doing their part to fight for animal welfare in Pakistan. Through their start-up business “Paws for Purpose” Aaleen and Shahnoor groom pets to raise money for Lahore’s animal shelters. Their growing social media presence is not only a way to find clients. They also routinely appeal for donations, share volunteer opportunities and direct their followers towards organizations working with animals across the city.
“We just wanted to help in some way. I think it’s important to do things you care about, says Aaleen as she deftly clips the nails of a young Pomeranian.
The scene is cheerful. The two girls laugh and bicker as they tend to their barking clients. But grooming animals in Lahore’s summer heat is not easy work. The pair spends hours outdoors, averaging several pets a day, carefully washing, brushing and trimming each animal that comes through their doors.
It is a clean, professional but entirely unpretentious operation, run entirely through their own initiative. The girls are admirable in their clarity of purpose. They have identified something they care about and, rather than waiting for someone else to act, have begun doing the work themselves. That so few people share this way of thinking is not lost on them.
“We meet so many people through this job and they all love their own pets. But so few ever stop to think about strays,” says Shahnoor. It is a contradiction the girls encounter regularly, people can be deeply affectionate towards the animals living inside their homes, while remaining largely indifferent to those living on the streets. For Aaleen and Shahnoor, the distinction is difficult to reconcile.
Paws for Purpose comes at a time of increasing public outcry over Pakistan’s treatment of stray animals. The country has long struggled with how to manage large populations of stray dogs and cats, with concerns around public safety often clashing with calls for more humane treatment.
The Islamabad High Court has imposed a permanent ban on the culling of stray dogs and called for investment in more humane methods of population control. Courts in Lahore have expressed similar concerns, even as reports of culling continue to emerge. Aaleen and Shahnoor are under no illusion that a small grooming business can solve a problem of this scale. They are representative, however, of a larger trend within the country, where passionate young people create the change they wish to see.
Their message to any curious observers, on social media or at their salon, is simple. “We hope more people would adopt, but if they can’t, they should at least support the organizations.” The two girls are clearly on a mission, balancing school work with a desire to create a kinder world for the animals they love.
