Category: Politics

An alternative draft of this article was first published on the Oevaru blog. Republished with permission.

A life of a pet owl, which seems to cast a spell on you with its fathomless deep blue eyes, is to be spared according to a recent update on MDP Haruge, which may bring some joy to a nation torn over an inability to distinguish between ‘dangerous’ and ‘exotic’ animals.

Some reports suggest the owl has been spared while other pet owner mourn their lost friends. One harmless iguana’s eulogy was given by its owner, Miusam Mushthaag: “Miss u igu” simply said all.

Matters have been made worse by conflicting official statements, with some government agencies reported that “all” the “illegal” and “dangerous” animals seized from the recent drug busts have been “destroyed”. This has not stopped heartbroken Maldivians going into a state of denial, refusing to accept that these animals have been killed.

The owner of the owl is reported to be pursuing legal action against the authorities – claiming that the owl confiscated from him during the special police operation was not ‘smuggled’ into the country but was, rather, a migratory foreign bird he had caught in an uninhabited island.

The owner’s conviction that his animal remains alive has given hope that the authorities, through bureaucratic slowness perhaps, have somehow not yet murdered at least some of these animals.

Specifically the owl was lucky not to have been mentioned in a list of outlawed and endangered animals that could be imported into the country without written permission from the authorities. It was also lucky not to be mentioned in the list of migratory animals that are prohibited from being caught and kept as pets.

“The ‪#‎Maldives authorities involved have shown that [the] dangerous aren’t the animals, but themselves,” writes Muna Aminath on the Facebook group ‘Colorless’.

The Pet Association of Maldives posted a letter signed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) director-general Ibrahim Naeem which claimed that owls are not specified as being allowed in Maldives, either as endangered or migratory bird. This itself is rather silly because you cannot expect the Maldives’ law to specifically name all the estimated 8.7 million species of living things in the world.

The unfortunate incidents of the past week beg the question: why has a certain resort – allegedly – been able to import Kangaroos which are also not specifically mentioned as an ‘allowed bird’? Why the discrimination in policy implementation?

Also, as Minivan News documented out, it raises the question as to why various ministries, rather than passing blame around, have not specifically agreed among themselves on how best to cooperate under such circumstances. They could do this first by asking themselves the question: who should define ‘exotic’ and ‘dangerous’, and who should regulate the import into the country of animals and pets based on these two characteristics?

Indeed, it’s a strange subject, and – other than the rumours that the owl when straight to a leading politician’s residence – it is hard to see what the benefit of the whole operation was. The animals let loose in the country were isolated incidents. Meanwhile, some lowly citizens lost their owl, while pictures circulate of a baby cheetah in Hulhumalé, reportedly owned by one of the country’s most prominent families. Will this be investigated?

In fairness to the Maldives National Defense Force, it seems like the authorities decided to collect these animals without the faintest idea as to what they would do with them. They would have been better left where they were – doing no real harm.

The reality is that the Maldives is only now slowly waking up to the concept of cruelty against animals and that all living things have basic rights as well as us humans. The long after-effects of the murder of Evan Naseem are now resonating, with Maldivians extending their courtesy not only to their fellow species but to other sentient beings also. Yes, Maldivians will no longer tolerate torture or violence against humans or any other living thing.

First there was Meemu Zaviyani with his EcoCare and Ali Rilwan with Bluepeace who began to make Maldivians aware of their place in the balance of the environment. But it should not be a surprise, in a country where there are no trained vets for pets and animal care, that others did not follow a stronger approach to animal cruelty.

No NGOs were set up before the somewhat recent Pets Association of Maldives – set up in 2010 – and in a society which has embraced both Buddhist and Islamic views on environmental balance, it is surprising that only a few vocal groups, like Maldivian Cataholics, advocate for the rights of all living things – in addition to their beloved cats.

Perhaps the climax of this confusion of mistrust will see the ministries reach agreement among themselves, and will allow Maldivians to enjoy animals that are not endangered and are not ‘dangerous’ to the Maldives’ environment and its human inhabitants.

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