As images of devastation in Brazil and Australia fill our TV screens, WSPA has begun assessments in the South American nation, as we end our participation in the aftermath of floods in Queensland State.
On 18 January, a WSPA assessment team arrived in the worst affected area of Rio de Janeiro state where floods and associated mudslides have killed more than 700 people to date. The team is currently assessing the animal need in the three worst affected towns, Teresópolis, Nova Friburgo and Petrópolis, and providing assistance to any animals encountered in the operation.
We had already received reports of dog fatalities in inundated animal rescue centres, and of other dogs trapped in isolated shelters without food. Animal shelters were also destroyed.
The WSPA team is on the ground for five days for its initial assessment which will determine what further steps should be taken to assist the animals of the area, thought to be mainly dogs. The first delivery of donated aid, consisting of some 300 kilos of food and medical supplies, was taken to the area on 20 January.
WSPA’s Brazil office is co-ordinating donations of animal food and money for the emergency and recovery period, as well as organizing an event on 22 January to find homes for homeless animals rescued. The operation is also providing food to the sniffer dogs being employed in the gruesome talk of recovery of bodies.
In the town of Nova Friburgo, WSPA is working with the local governmental animal welfare coordinator in providing food and shelter for rescued animals. A huge barn is being used as a makeshift home for dogs, some of which are the sole survivors of the families they lived with until the week before, the coordinator Carla Freire told us.
Local WSPA member society SOS Animal has managed to rescue 200 animals already in the worst-hit town of Teresópolis and expects to save around 800 in total. Another WSPA-affiliated NGO, GAPA-MA, which saw one of its own shelters destroyed, has rescued 15 animals in the Petrópolis area.
Across the other side of the world in Australia, the WSPA team sent to Queensland to assist local member society RSPCA Queensland, has headed back to Sydney following its assessment of the animal situation.
WSPA, the RSPCA Queensland and local authorities are confident that the latter entities are able to cope without further WSPA assistance in terms of both resources and capacity.
Local Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries, Rural and Regional Queensland Tim Mulherin said a State Animal Welfare Flood Control Group had been setup to prevent and respond to animal welfare issues during the flood response.
Meanwhile, a WSPA assessment team is also on standby to fly to Sri Lanka to determine the need for animals following devastating floods which have killed dozens of people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
