On the ground in Argentina attending to animal’s affected by the eruption of Chile’s Puyehue volcano, WSPA South America’s Ricardo Jimenez has sent us this eye witness account:
“The Argentinian government had declared several locations as disaster zones in the provinces of Neuquen and Rio Negro, which were badly affected by the eruption of the neighbouring Chilean volcano, Puyehue. I arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche with a WSPA team to deliver a relief operation to assist 120,000 animals owned by small farmers in the region.
Most of WSPA’s assistance for the province of Rio Negro is focused on delivering food to mainly sheep and goats unable to forage because of the thick ash layer covering the pastures. In addition, over the weekend, the team were stocking up supplies and distributing oats and forage as emergency food for horses in semi-rural communities. This included, for example, a big group of horses on an abandoned farm being cared for by a neighbour without the means to feed the animals himself.
Baya is just one of the horses at the abandoned farm, which was formerly a prosperous organic farm but is now covered in volcanic ash. She has not been able to properly suckle her young as she has not eaten enough grass to produce sufficient milk. When we arrived at the farm, the foal, which would normally only live on milk, put its muzzle into the oats and claimed its share.
WSPA also visited impoverished communities around Bariloche that rely on working horses to transport firewood from high altitudes to the city to use as firewood during the winter. These communities also rely on selling the wood to neighbouring communities as a source of income.
The horses live in backyards and normally graze in the surrounding fields. Now, however, with relentless cold weather, many of them are in bad shape, unable to forage enough food in order to be able to work as their usual food source is buried many centimetres under the thick layer of ash. Those animals clever enough to remove a big layer of ash with their muzzles suffer from teeth deterioration in exchange for just a few blades of contaminated grass.
All these horses will need feed supplies until the grass has sprouted again on the fields around Bariloche, which will take a couple of months. Unfortunately, these horses are not entitled to governmental help as livestock would be because they are not considered as contributing significantly to the regional economy.
WSPA is also preparing educational material in collaboration with the National Agriculture Technology Institute (INTA) which will be handed out to animal owners, detailing how they can better protect the welfare of their animals over the tough months to come. The main topics covered in these materials are nutrition, animal health, management and shearing.
Our Argentinian member societies, FABA and Fundacion Collunche have also been very active in supporting WSPA's relief efforts. FABA has donated important medical supplies that will be very useful for a shelter which is taking care of the abandoned dog population in the town of Villa La Angostura, while WSPA will feed these animals in need. Fundacion Cullunche is helping WSPA with the organisation of food trucks that will be heading to the disaster zone, while their veterinarians will assist in offering medical treatment to companion animals.”
Further updates from the field will be posted soon.
