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Homeless men feed heroin to stray dogs in SHOCKING viral photos

The men were seen feeding heroin to dogs that roam the area so that they stick with them to keep them warm during the winters

In a disturbing incident in Kabul, homeless men were seen feeding heroin to dogs that roam the area so that they stick with them to keep them warm during the winters. Dogs appear to suffer the same effects of addiction that we see in humans. Bottles are being placed over the dogs' noses and the heroin smoke is blown through the open top. 

Under their rule, the Taliban have pledged to ban the production of drugs and tackle narcotics addiction. There were reports of them beating up drug addicts and taking them to rehabilitation centers forcefully. The homeless men in Shahr-e Naw are fearful that they might even be killed.

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"I did not know if I used drugs my life would be like this and I would lose my family. I've memorised the Quran. I'm not a bad person, I'm in a deep well I can't get out of," the Daily Mail quoted a homeless man, addicted to drugs for eight months, as saying. The vast majority of the world's opium, used for heroin, is grown in Afghanistan's poppy fields. A lot of it is smoked in the streets of Kabul.

At present, the temperature in Kabul ranges between 25 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 to 13 degrees Celsius). By January, however, the city will become colder and will witness frequent snowfall. In fact, temperatures in Kabul dipped as low as 3 Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) back in 2012. In this situation, the homeless men survive depending on the warmth and companionship of the animals.

The Dodo had earlier shared that a video that went viral in 2016 showed a dog rubbing his head against the walls of a bridge seemingly in discomfort. Homeless dogs are a mainstay is areas where homeless addicts can be found living, on the streets and under the bridges.

Nesha, a young dog, found a home when she was taken by an addict who lived under the Pul-e-Sokhta bridge. This bridge reportedly houses several addicts in Kabul. Some neignbourhood kids made a video that showed Nesha being forcefed drugs. The video is no longer available. “Our veterinarians were horrified to see a dog being treated like this,” Hannah Surowinski, cofounder of Nowzad, Afghanistan’s only animal shelter, told The Dodo. “Without any thought for his own safety, our veterinarian Dr Mujtaba Rezaei immediately went down to the notorious area where all the drug addicts live and managed to rescue Nesha.”

“[Nesha’s] was the first case [of a dog addicted to opioids] we came across, but since Nesha we have heard of other dogs in the same area whose owners have made them reliant on heroin,” Surowinski added. Nesha was rescued by Mujtaba Rezaie, along with his team of young animal doctors from Kabul University. “The owner did not want to give us Nesha at first, claiming she would get sick if she didn’t get her three dose of drugs each day,” Rezaie said. “The next day we waited close by and watched for the owner to leave on his daily routine, and took Nesha when the owner wasn’t there."

Under the Taliban rule, unemployment is continuously rising in Afghanistan. With foreign businesses leaving the country, Afghans are resorting to selling their possessions to feed their families. There seems to be a possibility of famine as winter approaches.