The annual rainy season at year end, combined with the La Niña Phenomenon, have caused Colombia to experience its worst flooding in the last 40 years. A State of Emergency has affected 712 out of over 1,100 municipalities and 28 out of the 32 provinces in the country.
The Colombia-based WSPA team has been active in rescue operations and has been assisting animals affected by flooding in four different locations throughout Colombia, including the outskirts of the capital city, Bogota. After a couple days of respite during the recent holiday season, our disaster management team went to the northern coast of the country, where thousands of dogs, pigs and poultry are in desperate need of help.
WSPA South America’s Ricardo Jimenez has sent us this update from the northern coastal province of Atlántico, where he rejoined ongoing efforts to assist animals in the country.
“Following our earlier work in interior provinces, there was a huge need to help animals in Atlántico, after a dike, usually preventing surrounding communities from a large river, cracked open and flooded five municipalities.
A disaster management team made up of WSPA staff, vets from WSPA’s Veterinary Emergency Response Unit (VERU) and member societies was deployed to Atlántico as quickly as possible by plane. The team brought sacks of food, vaccines and other veterinary equipment to the worst-affected areas.
When we arrived, it was a necessary to travel on a navy boat to the town of Santa Lucia – as there was no way to get to the town by car any more.
Some of the most affected municipalities have a huge stray problem, and I saw hundreds of dogs all around the tent cities and the roadside shacks which had sprung up, competing with people for the scant resources available.
When stepping out of the boat, we were welcomed by the community and immediately we started feeding the few animals around the improvised port .Then, as if by magic, tens of dogs arrived as the croquettes of dry food were being thrown from sacks. I couldn’t believe my eyes but knew that there were far more hungry animals all around. The dogs were so hungry that they were growling at each other to protect their share of the food – what they didn’t know is we had enough for them to eat once and then again!
During the operation, we found that, fortunately, most of the dogs were fairly healthy. The team fed all the dogs they saw around the shacks, and strays were taken to veterinary facilities in the main city to be treated and re-housed - WSPA member societies are now committed to finding decent homes for these abandoned dogs.
The animal need in the town was huge. On the second day, we needed to bring food and medicine for pigs and poultry, as, the day before they had tried to loot the dog food. In fact, the smaller pigs did very well, camouflaging their coiled tails among the dog groups and getting fed without having to root on the floor!
Besides suffering from an empty tummy, dogs and cats in the towns were affected mainly by skin diseases, parasites, injuries from bites by other dogs in fights and broken bones, so our veterinary team of nine provided the necessary treatment.
So far, WSPA has assisted about 3,000 animals, not only dogs but pigs, goats, cattle and poultry that are facing hardship too. Luckily animals matter not only to WSPA, people who care about animals are everywhere here. Community leaders have organised their people to help WSPA deliver the relief their animals desperately need.
During our intervention, we were helped by Jesus, a local man who guided us through the town, wanting no reward except for us to help the animals he could not do alone. He had been in distress watching the animals suffering and having no extra food to give them once small rations were handed out. A local 8-year old boy, Brian, also insisted on delivering food hand outs to animal owners.
Although I had to leave, the WSPA veterinary team is staying in the disaster zone, at present, moving relief efforts to reach more animals in the towns that were paradoxically devastated by the waters of the same river that -along with their animals- has been the source of the local livelihoods.”
