WSPA - Animals in Disasters Blog

Mount Sinabung update

We’re back in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia working just outside the 5 kilometre exclusion zone around Mount Sinabung. We're here to monitor and evaluate the work we did in January and February when we came to assist the evacuation and feeding of livestock from villages in the danger zone surrounding the erupting volcano.  

WSPA's Asia Pacific Disaster Team Leader Steven Clegg checking on a cow with Mount Sinabung erupting in the background.

Our first stop was the volcano observatory where we met with volcanologists for an update on the eruptions. With steam, ash and rockfalls visible on the volcano, it came as no surprise that it is considered very much still active.  We then set out to find the animals we helped. We were happy to find cattle we evacuated from the danger zone looking healthy and happy in the evacuation camps (see photos of the same cow here) and even saw one calf who was born just two hours before we arrived!

Steven Clegg checks on a cow we evacuated from the danger zone in January.

A mother cow looks on as her two hour old calf learns to walk in an animal evacuation camp around Mount Sinabung

The fields surrounding Sinabung were looking green again, in contrast to the cementy grey appearance they had last time. Despite less eruptions and some rainfall, fine ash continues to fall every day and makes the grasses unsuitable for grazing.   

Ducks walk in a coutryard with Mount Sinabung in the background.

People are clearing ash and grit from roadways, homes and fields as they try to adapt to living at the foot of an active and deadly volcano. Animal owners are still trying to wash/dust off fodder materials. We met farmers using the feed WSPA provided to protect the animals through the critical period when uncontaminated food sources were scarce and they reported that their animals were even healthier now than before the eruption.

A farmer giving his cattle feed WSPA provided for local livestock 

While we’re happy to report that the animals are looking much healthier and safe, the continuing seismic and eruptive activities of the volcano has us all vigilant to the potential long term needs of the animals and their communities. We’ll be checking in with our partners here for regular updates and continue to be here for the animals when help is needed.

Evacuating and caring for animals in the deadly shadow of Mount Sinabung

The tragic news this week that Mount Sinabung’s ongoing eruptions claimed an additional sixteen human lives is a reminder how deadly and devastating natural disasters can be.  

WSPA's Dr. Naritsorn Pholperm approaches a cow in the danger zone around Mt. Sinabung. February 8, 2014. © WSPA/Gembong Nusantara

WSPA was in Sinabung, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia earlier this month where we helped hundreds of animals living in the ash-covered wasteland surrounding the volcano. Sinabung recently came back to life after 400 years of inactivity and has been erupting nearly constantly (50-100 times a day) for several weeks.

When our team arrived, we discovered that local food sources were contaminated and unfit for animals to eat as they were coated with volcanic ash. Focusing our efforts on the most affected areas within 7 kilometres radius of the volcano, we helped by evacuating larger livestock and facilitating the evacuation of many more, helping approximately 750 animals.   Now safe in designated evacuation areas, we will be providing these animals with emergency feed and will continue for up to 8 weeks.  

Conducting health checks on animals living near the volcano.
© WSPA/Gembong Nusantara

Dr. Pholperm with one of the cows we evacuated to safer ground.
© WSPA/Gembong Nusantara

Some of the people living nearby explained that they had no way to move their larger animals so really appreciated the help. Thankfully, smaller livestock and other animals had mostly already evacuated or sold off.  

A young dog lies by the road, with volcanic ash covering every surface. © WSPA/Gembong Nusantara

We helped dogs we met by providing them with clean food and water.
© WSPA/Gembong Nusantara

We saw dogs (left behind for security or because evacuation centres could not accommodate them) and chickens that were starving and ran up to the team. We gave these animals food or help as we came across them and will continue to work there in the coming weeks to see how we can help all the animals caught up in this disaster.

Walking a cow to safety after evacuation from the 7 kilmotre danger zone.
© WSPA/Gembong Nusantara

The lucky goat on Malalison Island

It was early morning but the sun’s intensity was enough to wear you out after only a few minutes. We were on our way to Malalison Island – a tiny bump in the ocean about a half hour by motorboat from the west coast of Panay.

The WSPA team setting out, with Malalison in the distance

We’d heard from our local partners that little was known of the impact of Typhoon Haiyan on Malalison as communications had been severed. We knew they were mostly fisherman and farmers and they were directly in the storm’s path so we expected the worst.

When such a large area is affected by disasters, unfortunately small, remote places sometimes wait weeks for help. We heard no aid had reached them in over three weeks since November 8th.

The gorgeous turquoise blue waters and the distant green if the island made it look like a tropical paradise. As we drew nearer, the first thing we saw – or didn’t see – was the elementary school that stood near the shore. All that remained were bits of rubble. Haiyan took the school and much of the previous shoreline with it.

Once on the island, we realised they needed our help and so we went from house to house treating animals. We treated a young dog named “Negra” who’d just given birth to nine puppies two days before. She’d been attacked by another dog and had suffered injuries to her back leg. See a short video featuring Negra and her puppies here.

Negra, after treatment and a little camera shy

Negra's two day old puppies

We also treated a young, frisky, female goat that was the only surviving goat in her area of the island. All the others had died from injuries sustained during the typhoon or from the cold. These animals are accustomed to temperatures in the 30s so a prolonged soaking and chill from seven hours of intense storms can lower their body temperatures and prove fatal.

Allan holds his goat while Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo treats her with helath boosting vitamin injections

She looked a little lonely to me, as I know goats tend to like to play and be together. As she received treatment from Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo, I wondered why did this one goat survive? I found out it was because her owners brought her inside their house to ride out the storm. When I asked her owner Allan, the barangay (village) captain why he had done this. He said, “My wife worried about her so we brought her inside”.

Animals and people need the same things, food, water, safe and suitable shelter. By bringing her inside, the goat’s owners showed compassion for their animal and also how a simple decision and preparation that includes your animals makes the difference between life and death.

The people in this area don’t generally name their livestock, but our logistics officer, Cinthya Diaz, on hearing her story, immediately christened her “Lucky”.

Cinthya and Lucky

Philippines oil spill: helping the animals left behind

Last week, a barge containing bunker oil spilled 200,000 gallons on the waters and shore of Estancia, covering four communities or "barangays". The fumes were and still are dangerous enough to have forced the evacuation of over 100,000 people, now living in a dozen small "tent cities". These facilities are nothing but tents in muddy lots, with no possibility for the holding of animals, now left behind in the exclusion zone.

Access to this exclusion zone is restricted to short periods wearing masks. However, we’ve identified farm and domestic animals left behind and in need of assistance. Check out Director of Disaster Management, Gerardo Huertas, as he assesses animals left behind:

 

 

After meeting with the city major and provincial veterinary authorities, we have confirmed an intervention to provide immediate food for the animals left in the exclusion zones that otherwise will die from starvation.

We'll give you an update on this situation as it develops.

For more information on WSPA click here.

"I have held my tears inside until this moment"

Today I met a family whose story of Typhoon Haiyan broke my heart. Nenita Inamarga 63 and her daughter in law Jeniffer Inamarga 35 described the horror that devastated their farm on the afternoon of November 8 and has left them scared and without hope ever since.

“We heard on the radio that the typhoon was coming but they predicted it would be signal one (the lowest on the Philippines ranking category),” Jeniffer said. “But then around midnight on the eighth, it was upgraded to signal 4 (the strongest).”

Jeniffer and her daughter Ruth Inamarga in front of their chicken coops. One coop was blown into a pond, drowning 600 birds.

For the Inamargas, November 8 started out beautifully: bright blue skies overhead with soft breezes blowing through their family farm. The Inamarga family has farmed here for fifteen years and weathered serious typhoons in 2007 and 1985. They told me they were worried, but the morning gave no indication of what was to come.

Life has not always been easy for this family of six, particularly since Nenita’s husband became bedridden since suffering a stroke two years ago. But, they have always managed and even done well as they grew their family business, raising chickens for meat and eggs, pigs and growing coconut trees.

The rains came at 11am in the morning, but it was only once the ferocious winds began ripping through their farm at 1 pm that they realised they were in trouble.

“This was like nothing I have lived through before,” said Nenita. As this proud, graceful and gentle lady struggled to keep her composure the tears welled up in her eyes. “I have been so worried since that day. How will my family survive?” she asked.

Nenita Inamarga

When they typhoon’s full strength hit the Inamarga farm, it killed all of their pigs and half of the family’s chickens. As the windows of their homes rattled wildly, theratening at any moment to shatter and the gates to their property banged open and shut, the family dogs whined in fear and sought shelter under the beds. One large coop was picked up and plunged into a pond, drowning six hundred birds. In a single afternoon, the family income and livelihood was almost entirely wiped out.

The Inamarga family's ordeal lasted seven hours. They huddled together in the family home that lost part of its roof, but miraculously remained standing as trees and animals shelters crashed all around them.

Jeniffer told me she had given up hope. “We thought the world forgot about us already,” she said. “We have nothing without our animals,” she added. Nenita said she has held in her tears to not show how worried she is for the family. “I did not want my children and my two grandchildren to see me cry.”

This family, and so many others like them struggle to recover and survive but they can’t do it without our help. “When you arrived to help us, it was like a miracle,” Nenita said. “Now, I can let my tears come because I know help is here.”

We’re here to help families like the Inamargas by helping their animals. And with your continued support, we we can ensure their animals survive in the long term.

WSPA's Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo and Gerardo Huertas treat a dog at a mobile veterinary clinic we set up in Aklan Province, near the Inamarga family farm.

WSPA's Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo and Cinthya Diaz prepare to treat a rooster on December 2, 2013. Malaison Island, Philippines.

By working with individual farmers, local veterinarians and the government, we can deliver animal protection here, at this most critical time, as we do every day around the world.

 

Typhoon survivors in overlooked areas grateful for help

It’s day 17 of our relief  work in the Visasyas provinces of the Philippines. Every day, I’ve heard inspiring stories of survival and painful stories of loss.

It’s difficult to convey the scale of this disaster or how serious a situation the Filipino people and their animals are facing so let me instead, tell you about some of the people and animals we are helping.

Rilie Francis is 11 years old. He and his one year old dog Liney came form treatment at WSPA’s mobile clinic in Mamarang Sapa. He described the terror he felt the night of the typhoon as he feared his home would be smashed and his family and their beloved dog would not make it. Fortunately, they did. But, in the remoter areas of Aklan where aid has been slow to arrive or not arrive at all, the evidence of the toll it has taken is obvious. Both he and his dog were far too thin and looked weary. WSPA helped him by boosting Liney’s health with vitamin injections and anti-worm drugs as well as provided some food for his family.

Riley Francis stands in at the doorway to WSPA's mobile clinic while Liney walks out following his treatment

Two young boys from the same village Jomar Nalagan 10, and MarJo Nalagan Jr. 8, brought their puppies for treatment and waited with worried expressions while we helped “Lance” a one month old grey puppy and “Brownie” and “Blackie” a pair of two month old puppies. When our Filipino volunteer vets explained to them that now their dogs would be ok, healthier and able to cope during the slow recovery time, their eyes lit up and Marjo hugged his two young pups to his chest while saying “Salamat” (thank you) over and over again.

 

 

Jomar Nalagan and Lance

 

MarJo Nalagan Jr., Brownie and Blackie

Marjo listens to the WSPA vets as they explain how they are treating his young puppy Brownie

Ethel Nacuray 56, and her son Andrew 27 arrived next, with their five cows and one water buffalo in tow. Ethel told me she hasn’t slept in weeks, worried about how to take care of her family and their animals. Once we treated them, Ethel took my hands in hers and with tears in her eyes said “please tell the world what is happening here. Thank you WSPA.”

Andrew Narucay looks on as a volunteer vet with WSPA's response team treat one of his family's five cows.

Helping remote communities still reeling from disaster

Today we stopped in five villages and treated dozens of dogs, cattle water buffalo and pigs.

Mamarang Sapa village sits high in the mountains of Aklan Province. The typhoon has made access to these villages extremely difficult, and the rains yesterday nearly prevented us from reaching them at all, with a nearby river threatening to overflow and wash the roads away.

Villages like Mamarang Sapa have received next to no attention and very little outside help. The people and animals have been hanging on for weeks now and WSPA was the first INGO on the scene to help.

I met a fifty-year old woman named Prospera Bernal who brought her 15-year-old buffalo for treatment. He was injured during the typhoon and had a gash on his back that had not healed and become infected. WSPA’s Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo explained that although the injury would not normally be serious, the stress of the typhoon, the lack of proper food and medicines and the hot, humid temperatures can turn relatively minor injuries into serious, and even life-threatening conditions.

Ms. Bernal and her buffalo

Dr. Murillo immediately disinfected the wound and gave the buffalo vitamin injections to boost his immunity and allow him to recover.

WSPA's Dr. Murillo and two volunteer vets demonstrate how to humanely restrain large animals while delivering vital medical care.

We’re setting up mobile veterinary clinics through Aklan Province this week and sending advance word to the farmers and pet owners that help is on the way. At each stop that we make, children arrive with their puppies and farmers with their livestock. The anxiousness on their faces and relief once their animals receive our care show how deeply they care for their animals.

 
One of dozens of mobile veterniary clinics set up by WSPA across Panay. November 29, 2013. Libacao, Philippines.

In communities across the region, farming and agriculture is all that the people have. Without help, many of their animals will succumb to infected injuries, malnutrition and parasites.

WSPA is here to make sure that does not happen. In villages with no other way to make a living, no other way of life, keeping the animals safe, productive and minimizing their suffering is exactly what they need to recover.

A farmer and her cow make their way through rice paddies

I can’t overstate this enough. These villages have nothing without their animals. No industries, no electricity, no means to buy or make food or pay for their children’s education. The only thing they have that brings them income is growing crops and raising animals.

You who support us in doing this work are truly the heroes of this story. You are keeping communities healthy and intact and allowing animals and people to recover their lives in the wake of the worst disaster any of them have ever experienced.

WSPA delivering care to thousands of animals in devastated Central Visayas

WSPA’s Drs. Naritsorn Pholperm and Daniel Ventura have returned from Northern Cebu and Bantayan Island after helping thousands of animals by administering life-saving veterinary care in some of the areas that were hit hardest by Typhoon Haiyan over two weeks ago.

WSPA's Dr. Nartisorn Pholperm treats a cow in Northern Cebu Island. November 23, 2013

Over four days, the team working with 23 dedicated local volunteer vets. They assessed over 13,000 animals and treated over 2000! Diarrhoea and tick infestations have been the most common conditions our vets have managed. Both can prove fatal if left untreated – ongoing diarrhoea which is usually caused by intestinal parasites can lead to malnutrition, while ticks can also transmit deadly diseases.

Dr. Pholperm and our team of 24 additional vets have treated thousands of animals over the last 4 days.

Healthy, happy animals are always WSPA’s prime concern, but there are also significant benefits for people as well. Strong, fit animals will help support local communities that have been devastated by Haiyan.

Villagers, especially those in the more remote areas where our teams are working, rely heavily on their animals for eggs and meat. They also help farmers work their fields and harvest their crops so they are absolutely integral to their long term recovery.

Vaccinating animals against disease is also another important part of our ongoing work. During our team’s four day assessment in Northern Cebu and Bantayan Island, 4,000 animals were identified as being at risk of a serious condition called hemorrhagic septicaemia. Our vets will work in partnership with local veterinary volunteers to carry out vaccinations against this disease towards the end of this week.

While in the northern part of the island our team also distributed one ton of pet food to make sure the dogs have enough to eat while their owners get back on their feet.

Providing food to malnourished dogs will help them suvive as communities rebuild and recover. © WSPA/C. Baldanitcos

Our teams have continued to be impressed be the incredible resilience and positive attitude of the wonderful Filipino people who have been most grateful for WSPA’s support to protect their animals.

Helping the animals in Western Visayas as they struggle to survive.

Our three-day rapid assessment of Western Visayas is now complete. We have been helping animals we’ve come across all through Antique, Kalibo and Roxas provinces.  

We’ve been providing vitamins, mineral supplement solutions to cows, chickens and dogs as well as anti-worm drugs so that these survivors do not now succumb to chronic malnutrition and parasites.

WSPA's Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo treats a three year old pregant cow that exhibit signs of respiratory distress as her owner Olivia steadies her. © WSPA/Troncophotovideo

Conversations are underway with local veterinarian associations and faculties to train, equip and deploy them into the worst stricken areas in teams of vets led by WSPA. 

We are also surveying animal health conditions in the area, to determine the food and nutrition needs hundreds of thousands of surviving poultry and pigs to get them through the worst period following the disaster.

Yesterday, we came across a farm in the steep hills near Kalibo city that was in a poor state. It was strewn with debris, fallen trees, and there was a feeling of despair in the air.

Two thousand chickens were slowly dying in their cages under the scorching sun, despite the best efforts of their owner, Jack Major. Mr. Major told us he lost thousands of chickens when Typhoon Haiyan hit and he was still losing an additional 200 each day since.

Mr. Major told us he felt helpless as he watched his chickens die in the hundreds every day. He’d scraped together the only money he had to hire a few men to construct a new building and roof in which to house them. Unfortunately and despite everyone’s attempts at working as fast as they could, time was running out.

Mr. Major explained he had to keep his chickens separated, with the more productive animals running free range in a shaded area and the remaining birds who were either the wrong age or level of production left in near direct sunlight. He’d made efforts at protecting them by laying tree leaves over the top of their cages, but it just wasn’t enough. When we met him, Mr. Major told us he’d already given up.

WSPA’s team immediately realised that dehydration would kill all of the birds who’d miraculously managed to survive Haiyan. As the situation was urgent, we immediately came up with a plan to move them out of the cages and direct sun into the more humane and comfortable are occupied by the more productive bids. Dr. Murillo devised a simple but effective solution of marking the birds back feathers with violet dye so that they could mix freely with the rest of the flock and shelter from the punishing sun.

We then provided water and designated a larger area in which they could move freely, giving them water and shade immediately means they won’t be as vulnerable to overheating, dehydration and have a fighting chance.  

A very moved and thankful Mr. Major began moving all of his birds to safety and for the first time since the disaster felt hopeful as he realised the help he needed had finally arrived. Look at the birds in this video our team lead captured, and see the birds spring back to life and run to the new water source. Together, we saved them from a near certain death.

On another farm, the owners greeted us among destroyed buildings and trees, relating that their farm had been devastated and they had no means to feed their animals. The team provided emergency food for pets and birds, which had not eaten in two weeks.

As owner Mary Theresa watches, WSPA's Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo prepares to treat her dog with health boosting inoculations. © WSPA/Troncophotovideo

Filipinos devotion to their animals, whether livestock or pets is very moving. Despite the near total destruction of their homes, people are sharing what little they have to keep their animals alive.  

The relief they express when WSPA arrives and offers to help their animals reminds me why we must assist them in the worst times. They’ve been hanging on as best they can and trying their best to keep their animals alive and healthy too.  

Thanks to you, we’re able to keep families intact and protect the only source of income the famers have left after Haiyan took everything away in the space of a few hours.  

Manuela and Mickey, Luisa and Boogey in Antique Province, Western Visayas. November 24, 2013. © WSPA/Troncophotovideo

I’ll have an update on our Cebu-based team up for you in the next couple of days.

WSPA extends help to Western Visayas

As one WSPA Response team is out working helping thousands of animals with vaccinations and veterinary care in Northern Cebu and Bantayan Islands,our second response team is just back from our first day of rapid assessment in Antique, Western Visayas. Yesterday, we visited communities and farms all along this province that makes up the western coast of the island of Panay. 

Dr. Nartisorn Pholperm prepares to treat an a cow on Bantayan Island. November 22, 2013

As in Cebu last week, we saw evidence of the terrible fury of Typhoon Haiyan. Destruction was everywhere and, two weeks out, it is clear that the recovery across the affected region will need help.

We met a lady named Ilma De la Cruz in Bagacay Village who told us the heartbreaking story of her cow. Ilma told me that when the typhoon hit, she and her neighbours took shelter in their homes and hoped for the best. The homes in Bagacay village are made the traditional way, from wood and leaves and many of them lay in ruins, in silent testament to how utterly defenceless residents were against a storm of this magnitude.

Ilma against destroyed backdrop of Bagacay Village. © WSPA/Troncophotovideo

Ilma said she owned two cows before Haiyan, but that one was already dead. Her cow, a four year old female was struck by a falling coconut trees, and suffered a broken leg. With no other option, and unwilling to watch her cherished companion suffer, she made the difficult choice of having her put down.

Remote parts of the Philippines like Bagacay village don’t have access to vets on a regular basis, so grave injuries like a broken leg that might otherwise be treatable, end up being death sentences for the animals.

Roberto Melocotones describes the loss of thousands of chickens on which he depended for his family's livelihood.
© WSPA/Troncophotovideo

Another man, Roberto Melocotones aged 60 broke down in tears as he described losing 1000 of his chickens. He said he felt helpless knowing that this investment was now gone. Roberto said, without the income from the eggs and meat he didn’t know how he could continue sending his children to school. He said in order to keep his remaining chickens alive, he would be forced to take out loans at high interest rates from predatory lenders who appear like vultures in the wake of devastating events. He described a future all too common in developing countries following massive disasters and in his one story, encapsulated a basic truth about the role animals play in people’s future financial and food security.

The loss of animals can lock people into an endless cycle of poverty, take away their ability to educate their children, expand their businesses and the freedom to make choices in their lives.

As we made our way through Antique, we helped farmers and their animals by providing mineral solutions for poultry, vaccinations for dogs, cattle and pigs. This is just the beginning. We are focused now on maintaining the health and welfare of surviving animals so that their human companions have a chance of recovering and resuming a normal life.      

WSPA's Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo examines a cow while Gerardo Huertas calms her and speaks to her owner. © WSPA/Troncophotovideo     

Dr. Murillo prepares to vaccinate a dog, Antique Province. November 23, 2013.
© WSPA/Troncophotovideo

We will stay the course in the Philippines and are right now planning a medium and long-term response that keeps the animals healthy and safe and gives people who rely on them a fighting chance at freedom and recovery.