I’m on my way back to the office after spending the last ten days in the disaster zone in Argentina as part of a WSPA relief team.
I’m leaving the ash-gray landscape created by the volcano behind, but I’m not distressed to be leaving right now, because I know our relief operation will extend to the end of the southern winter, which means over 150.000 animals in need are going to be effectively protected from hunger and disease when they are most vulnerable.
Over the last few days, after the arrival of the first truck loaded with 28,000 kilos of alfalfa pellets (enriched with corn) for sheep and goats, we distributed this emergency food to small-scale producers in the rural area of the town of Jacobacci, one of the locations worst affected by the recent eruption. We were also vaccinating those animals against enterotoxemia, as the changes in their diet mean they are vulnerable to this disease. Some emaciated sheep were also given shots of vitamins with calcium and glucose so they can get their strength back and make it through these tough times.
I watched as our vets de-wormed working horses and shepherd dogs, checked them for injuries, eye irritations and respiratory upsets, and gave them the treatments they needed to get on the way back to good health.
On my last visit to the “farms” I met Alejo whose only source of income is the flock of sheep and goats he has raised in a public land in the surroundings of Jacobacci. His own home is just as tiny as the enclosures for his animals are; the only difference is the animals are allowed to roam around all day long and access wide open spaces, while he and his wife just need to keep inside the most of the time because of the relentless cold weather. There isn’t enough water in his well, neither for his own consumption nor for his goats and sheep.
Alejo has lost many animals during the last couple of months because of digestive blockages. As he had no money to supplement his animals’ diet after the eruption, they just continued to graze on the fields, ingesting lots of ashes that got compacted in their stomach and made them die. Sometimes he has had to go to the fields and carry one of his animals back home on his shoulders because they are too weak to walk back.
Alejo was certainly lucky that afternoon, as our disaster relief team had arrived to his place to feed his animals – the animals rushed towards the food! - and provide them with water and vitamins. Our veterinarians also carried out emergency medical procedures on sheep bitten by dogs and suffering from other injuries.
It must have been a lucky afternoon for me as well as Alejo gave me the most sincere thank you hug I have received in recent times!
Another five trucks loaded with food will arrive in the disaster zone over the next weeks and the pellet sacks will be distributed to small farmers like Alejo (who will also receive additional sacks) through the Jacobacci’s emergency committee and our partners from the National Agriculture Technology Institute (INTA). The neighbouring municipality of Comallo would be benefited too. WSPA is also donating a large number of vaccination doses for the animals in these places, so I know that the work I witnessed on this trip will indeed continue to help the animals through the tough recovery period ahead.
So tired and still dreaming of ashes,
Ricardo
