WSPA - Animals in Disasters Blog

Responding to crisis in northern India

Aerial vew of the mountainous Ladakh region

Our Asia Pacific Disaster Response team are on the Changtang Plateau, southeastern Ladakh in India's northern Jammu Kashmir State conducting a rapid assessment after a prolonged period of intense cold and snowfall has killed thousands of animals and affected the livelihoods of countless people.

Three members of our disaster response team are on the ground to conduct the assessment after 40,000 goats and sheep and hundreds of horses and yaks have died from malnourishment and hypothermia. Many thousands more are potentially in danger as the lack of food over the past months has affected their resistance and health. 

A sheep in Leh, April 2013. Leh is the largest town in the Ladakh region which includes the affected area of the Changtang Plateau

These animals are the backbone of the local economy and represent a large percentage of the local pashmina industry. People in Changtang region are generally nomads whose entire livelihoods come from their animals.
 
We'll have more details in the coming days as we hear back from our team.

Animals in disaster must not be an ‘afterthought’ WSPA tells the United Nations

With the vast majority of the world's poor heavily reliant on animals for their livelihoods and food security, protecting animals must be an integral part of any effective disaster response.

This is the message we're bringing to the United Nations and the humanitarian community at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, a bi-annual event which takes place throughout this week.

In partnership with the Mexican Government, we'll be hosting a side event today to demonstrate the value of a holistic response to disasters, which addresses both human and animal needs, through our pioneering drought-response work in Chihuahua.

Watch our video to see how we helped the disaster affected families of Chihuahua protect their animals and rebuild their community.

We're the first ever animal protection organisation to host an event at the Global Platfrom so we're thrilled to share our experience with experts from the disaster response field.

You can receive live updates from WSPA staff at the event if you follow @wspa.

Our team reports back from Ecuador floods

Recent heavy rains in Ecuador have meant over 3,000 rural families affected in the Santa Ana District after the main river in the zone burst its banks. Crops were absolutely destroyed by the flooding and many animals are currently suffering skin infections, pneumonias and diarrhoeas.

After the declaration of the state of emergency, a DART team from neighbour country Colombia -where our South American office is based in- flew to Ecuador to evaluate the animal welfare need. While the weather again played havoc with the itineraries and they had to spend many hours being detoured to different airports, our WSPA team has started the field work and this is what our DM manager, Julia Lema, has just reported back:

Unfortunately the floods have affected the poorest people in this community, their houses, roads and bridges are covered by mud, which has made the access to their animals even more complicated. They have reported this is the first time they have to face an emergency like this and are very concerned to have to add more animal losses to the aftermath of the emergency as many of them were cropping on loans.

We share their concerns as the region is presenting a critical epidemiological situation caused by intestinal parasites and the surviving animals drinking dirt water will be at a high risk as well as the humans around. Horses, dogs, pigs and poultry are already in very bad conditions and sick with pneumonias and diarrhoeas.

Besides what we have been able to witness, the flights over the affected area have allowed the authorities to find people and animals trapped by the water and the mud. In these communities the link between animals and humans is even stronger; with such a rural lifestyle, they heavily depend on them for income, transportation and food and are not willing to leave them behind in an evacuation. But the emotional link is not weaker, and the following story is why.

One of the members of the local Disaster Management authority told me this:
“When the emergency stroke, I went with a partner to deliver aid to the affected people. That was a very exhausting day and we took a moment to eat lunch. Then a little boy came to us with his female dog behind saying that she had lost their babies in the floods, and that his own mother had been able to save the puppies’ mother but not the puppies, so he felt they had failed. It was hard to see but was also a lesson learnt from a boy.

Our WSPA team remains working in the field and we will keep you posted.

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Flash floods in Argentina's capital

UPDATE: Response team rush to Ecuador to help families affected by the floods

UPDATE: Response team rush to Ecuador to help families affected by the floods

Julia and Juana from our disaster management team in Latin America travelled to the Manabi province in Ecuador yesterday to assess the damage caused by the recent flooding. So far, 10 people have tragically died after heavy rain set off mudslides and caused rivers to overflow. Over 3,000 families have lost their homes, crops and animals in the rural communities of La Union and San Pablo del Pueblo.

With almost 90% of land lost, around 12,000 animal’s lives are in danger. Concerns continue to grow as the transmission of disease from animals to humans becomes a real threat. Whilst the priority now is ensuring the local communities have access to food and medicine, the WSPA team will be finding out what more they can do to help and will report back in the next few days.

Stay tuned for updates.

Flash floods in Argentina's capital

The residents of Buenos Aires and La Plata were left in shock last week after flash floods killed 54 people and forced a further 4,000 people to evacuate their homes.

A WSPA response team was deployed to the field to assess what could be done to assist local communities in treating injured animals. On reaching the field, they found a large number of animals wandering through the flooded streets suffering from hunger and dehydration.

Sergio Vásquez, WSPA’s Disasters Management Veterinary Officer recounts the tragic story of Luna, a mare that was stolen and attacked by a local gang.

“A few days in into our trip we arrived in El Carmen, a community in La Plata where we found Luna, a mare that had been stolen from her owners and viciously attacked. Her captors had cut her mane to make her less recognizable and attempted to kill her for meat, before she luckily managed to escape Having been missing for 6 days, Luna miraculously managed to find her way home to her owners, who were overjoyed to be reunited with her. Despite returning home, Luna had suffered serious injuries so we took her to the Veterinary Faculty of La Plata University where she could receive the best medical care. Since then she has showed signs of improvement and we hope she will be able to return back
to her owners soon”.

The WSPA response team will continue to help animals like Luna over the next two weeks as they aim to provide veterinary care, food and vaccination to around 800 working horses and approx. 1,300 cats and dogs. A series of public service announcements will focus on helping people to cope with the floods and protect themselves from the spread of disease.

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Buenos Aires flash floods kill eight

Flooding kills at least 46 people in Argentina

Update: Some good news from Beed!

I'm happy to tell you that the shade netting and mineral supplements have arrived for the animals coping with the terrible drought in Maharashtra State.

While this means 9,000 animals have a fighting chance to get through this drought, our work now turns to persuading the remaining camps across the state to adopt this model camp approach.

Have a look at some photos of the arrival below!

WSPA's Dr. Akash Maheshwari demonstrates the right mixture of mineral supplements to feed

as a hungry water buffalo looks on

WSPA's Hansen Thambi Prem and cattle camp residents unfurl the first of the shade nets to arrive

 

Staying alive against a dying landscape

Our third day in the cattle camps and we were there from early morning until sunset. The heat from the sun around midday was so strong, I was constantly thirsty and sought shade in or beside the makeshift cattle shelters.

     Makeshift shelters

Whirlwinds passed through the camps every hour or so, creating vivid tunnels of dust, garbage and dried up leaves. While not dangerous, they are unpleasant and afterwards you rub grit from your eyes and have to rinse out your mouth.

This was one day.

I met people who’ve been living there every day since December. It’s uncomfortably hot right now, but over the next few months, the temperatures will regularly climb into the blistering mid-40s Celsius or 120s Fahrenheit.

  Chatragun, 21 years old and his eight cattle including this two-year old female calf

walked seven kilometres to find shelter in this camp
  

The shelters we saw were made from whatever farmers could find – jute sacks, plastic sheeting that was often cracked or fraying, even some discarded and rusting metal siding that might have once been a shed.

WSPA India's Dr. AkashMaheshwari along with local volunteer Dhama Parvekar,

takes health data from one of the cattle living at the site of our ongoing intervention

The three camps we’re working are meant as models of the best shade and nutrition care for animals trying to survive a drought. By improving and maintaining the health and welfare of these 9000 animals, we hope to persuade the State Government to adopt this model in other camps in drought-ravaged Beed District.

WSPA India’s Dr. Akash Maheshwari talks to camp resident Arjun about the health and shelter

of his animals while planning WSPA’s intervention

The surrounding countryside is scorched dry. Only the trees with the longest taproots remain green. Yet, even in the harshest conditions, there is hope. Today, amidst all the heat and dust, a female calf was born and became the newest resident of the camp.

Rani, four hours old

“Rani” which means ‘queen’ was too young to stand but her owners Arjun and Reka were doting on her, rubbing her coat and making sure she had enough shade. Her mother was nearby and kept a watchful eye on her as she recovered from labour.

I hope the rains come in June and that Rani, Gyaneshwar, Kisan and Manthan -- all the people and animals I’ve met over the last few weeks -- lives are made easier by the work we’re doing here in the meantime.

Photos of the shade netting and nutritional supplement delivery will be up soon!

Living in camps to cope with drought in Beed

We arrived early in the morning in Yeshwanth Cattle Camp, one of three locations where WSPA is helping 9,000 animals. As we neared, I could hear the soft tinkling sound of bells many buffalo and cows were wearing.

WSPA India’s Hansen Thambi Prem at the Yeshwanth Cattle Camp in Beed

Some camp residents were already caring for their animal companions, pouring out buckets of chopped sugarcane, their main source of fodder. Some were rolling up their bed mats and shaking off sleep. They’re living in the camp like the young boy Gyaneshwar we met the other day. Camps range in size from 500 to 3000 cattle and buffalo, there were about 2800 animals today.

Vijay Uttham Sabay and his buffalo. His green bed mat is visible at right.

Twenty-two year old camp resident Vijay is from Palwan Village a two-kilometre walk. Others like Krishna Bharat Katkar, 18 years old, come from Kahapar Panjar village, seven kilometres away. Krishna has been living here for fifteen days along with his family, which includes his parents, six buffalo, two bulls, five calves and their two-year old dog Major.

Krishna Bharat Katkar answers Hansen’s questions about his animals while Major keep an eye on the family’s cattle and buffalo

They live in long rows, roughly corresponding to their home villages, recreating in miniature parts of the Beed district. Kisan Maske, 21, is also from Palwan and is here with his ten cattle and buffalo. He’s a student and aspires to be a government official one day. Incredibly, he manages to care for his animals and study for his ongoing computer science university exams, while living in extremely basic conditions. He said his father takes his place when he needs to go to class or write exams.

Kisan Maske proudly shows his textbook in front of the shelter where he and his ten animals live.

Kisan and others we met at the camp showed us the makeshift shelters they’d built for their animals. This week, WSPA is working with the Beed Veterinary Hospital, the Department of Animal Husbandry and local volunteers to deliver nets that will block 90% of the sunlight for the people and animals living here. Sugarcane feed, while rich in vitamin A and high in water content does not have the minerals the animals need. So, we’re also providing mineral supplements to keep them healthy.

Kisan was great fun to talk with. He tried to teach me some of the sounds people make to communicate with their animals and laughed when I couldn’t quite reproduce them. One of his cows 'speaks' Marathi. She's a beautiful seven-year old named ‘Manthan’ who comes running when you call her name.

Kisan and Manthan

Meeting Kisan, Krishna and Vijay, I thought again of the many lives this drought is affecting and how much we need to help these people and animals cope with living daily in harsh sun and with few comforts.

A drought that separates families

Yesterday, I joined my colleagues from WSPA India in Beed and visited some of the villages and cattle camps in the drought area. The lands are parched and this normally green centre of sugarcane production looks more like a scrub desert.

A drought ravaged field in Beed, Maharashtra State, central India

One theory of how Beed came to get its name is as a variation on an early name for the area: ‘Bir’ which is Arabic for ‘well’. I saw several wells today, all of which had run dry. Fields and riverbeds were parched and we frequently saw goats walking across scorched fields, pausing occasionally to nibble at the hardiest weeds that remain.

   

WSPA’s Hansen Thambi Prem at one of the many dried up wells in the area

A goat forages in virtually barren fields

That afternoon, with the scorching sun above us, we went to one of 400 cattle camps set up across Maharastra State. There, I met Gyaneshwar, a 12 year old boy and his water buffaloes, two ten year old sisters. They’ve been living in the camp for three months as the drought made it impossible to keep the buffalo hydrated in their village. As their name suggests, water buffalo like to spend a lot of time in or around water and don’t do well in arid, drought like conditions.

Gyaneshwar and his buffaloes taking shelter at a cattle camp near Beed

Gyaneshwar explained that he is living alone, alongside his animals while his parents watch over their home two kilometres away and see to the needs of the rest of the family and their goats. They come to see him every day and bring him food. But just the thought of spending days and nights away from home for months at a time at such a young age really personalised this disaster for me.The Maharashtra drought is affecting 400,000 animals. The numbers are difficult to fully imagine. Meeting Gyaneshwar and other people who depend on these animals brought home the true scale and impact disasters have on entire communities.

Shy at first, Gyaneshwar beamed when he talked about his buffaloes. They’re part of the family and so important, that they live apart while he tends to them during the worst drought in 40 years.

Like twelve-year old boys everywhere, Gyaneshwar likes to have fun and after we spoke he joined dozens of other boys living alongside their animals in the camp – some with family members, others alone like him. They ran among the cattle and buffalo sheltering under shade nets enjoying the moment and looking forward to the monsoon rains due in June that will let them all go home again.

WSPA is here to help, providing nutritional supplements and shade nets to see through the animals and their human companions through the worst of the drought. I'll have another post up soon from Beed.

Team deploys to India to help drought affected animals

After an appeal for help from the Indian Government, WSPA is sending an expert disaster response team to the Western state of Maharashtra, to help the animals affected by the severe drought.

Communities in the region, which are heavily reliant on livestock and working animals for their livelihoods, have seen their crops destroyed after average rainfall dropped by up to 50%.

While the government has supplied fodder and water to 400 cattle camps across the state - helping to sustain animals through to the monsoon season in June - experts are still concerned these supplies won’t be sufficient, as the harsh summer approaches.

WSPA’s intervention, which will take 2 months to complete, will provide supplementary resources to help meet the needs of over 9,000 dairy cows in the worst affected areas. Greenhouse shade nets will help to protect the animals from the harsh sunlight and a large supply of mineral mixture will give the animals the essential nutrients they need to survive.

The team will also carry out an in-depth study to evaluate how local communities cope with disasters in order to recommend ways to become be better prepared for future droughts.

The team will deploy on Thursday so keep checking back for more updates. In the meantime, check out the BBC’s picture slideshow to get a clearer picture of the situation.