WSPA - Animals in Disasters Blog

Emergency intervention to begin in drought-hit Kenyan region

Our recent Disaster Assessment Needs Analysis (DANA) in the Mwingi district in Kenya, one of the many regions in East Africa severely affected by the continued drought, found an urgent need for emergency relief for livestock. Local people depend on their animals for their livelihood, often walking long distances with their livestock in search of water and pasture. The impact on the animals is severe and many succumb during the journey; furthermore, these animals come in contact with other animals at the watering points, which exposes them to transmissible diseases.

Next week, a WSPA team, in partnership with Veterinary Emergency Response Units (VERU) from the University of Nairobi, will travel to three large watering points in Mwingi where hundreds of animals and their owners gather.  At these locations, we will be able to assist animals in a coordinated and efficient manner, rapidly targeting the animals in one single location.

At the watering points, the team will ensure that the animals receive the necessary fodder, supplements and veterinary treatment to cope with the debilitating effects of this drought. The emergency operation will benefit some 10,000 cattle, 15,000 goats and sheep as well as 4,000 donkeys, together representing the livelihoods of 4500 households. 

Monsoon rains lead to WSPA action across southern Asia

This year has seen a raging monsoon and typhoon season across Asia, devastating lives and livelihoods, particularly in the Indian sub-continent. Our expertise will be used to full capacity in the coming weeks as we intervene in the Philippines, the Indian state of Orissa and Nepal, as well as being prepared for other possible disasters worldwide.   

In India, monsoon rains hit the eastern state of Orissa especially heavily last week, affecting 2.2 million people and over 742,000 livestock in 19 districts. A Disaster Assessment Response Team (DART) will travel from WSPA India in New Delhi this week to conduct an assessment of the situation and determine how we could intervene. However, we do anticipate that there will be a need for feed, water, shelter and veterinary care.

To the north in Nepal, monsoon rainfall has also been devastating, affecting more than 30,000 livestock in the Himalayan nation. WSPA’s local partner, the Society for Animal Welfare and Management Nepal (SAWM), is to intervene but has requested our assistance, so a DART will also travel to the country in the coming days to conduct an assessment of the animal impact.

At the end of August, seven provinces in the Philippines were struck by a devastating typhoon, killing 35 people and affecting over 400,000 people. A state of calamity was declared in the province of Ilocos Norte on the main island of Luzon, where all of the reported animal fatalities occurred – in total 1,781 livestock were reported dead.

We received a request for assistance and a WSPA DART was deployed to undertake an assessment of the need for animals in the province.  Recommendations are being set out but it is expected that veterinary care and feed will be required.

Meanwhile, following recent floods, our long term response work in India’s West Bengal region continues while the distribution of cattle feed is still ongoing. Animal owners in six of the most affected villages are receiving training in Disaster Management, which will ensure that villagers will be better equipped to assist their animals in future floods.

WSPA’s evaluation mission in Kenya

WSPA’s Mission in Kenya Following his video documentation of Kenya’s Mwingi District, recorded whilst on the ground in Kenya’s drought-stricken Mwingi district, WSPA vet and Disaster Veterinary Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean Sergio Vasquez sent us a written account of his experience.

“We are in this beautiful country, where water and pasture are lacking but the people’s will to survive still remains. In the district of Mwingi, we were able to appreciate the conditions that people and animals are living in; sharing water wells that are more than six kilometres away. The shepherds in other areas have to travel distances of 40 km, which strains the physical condition of both animals and owners.

In a dried-up river bed, we found a small amount of water still there, which had initiated conflict among villagers and even violence. The shepherds argued with other farmers trying to retrieve water for their crops. At the same time, people working in construction-related activities try to remove the sand in the dried-up river. These differing needs have caused fights among tribal groups.

During the evaluation, we visited a border-zone between Somalia and Kenya, home to the Khamba tribe. In spite of the warnings in the media of conflicts between shepherds, we encountered a very different reality; a survival strategy called ‘humanity’. Both communities learnt to help each other in the daily struggle for food. They have agreed on an exchange of labour for water and on the leasing of wells. Unfortunately, these efforts have not been enough to prevent the drought conditions taking the lives of 100 donkeys, 1,100 goats and 30 bovines, which have died of respiratory diseases.

We also visited one of the largest centres for water distribution, a well drilled by the government to a depth of 500 feet that uses a gas-powered water pump. This increases the cost for the shepherds who have to pay two Kenyan shillings per animal, which equates to one US dollar for every 40 animals – this may not sound like a lot, but it is a significant amount for these families.

The main problem we encountered was animals dying of fatigue and respiratory diseases, having to walk long distances without food. The shepherds have been feeding them a vegetable called ‘thubas’, but it too is scarce.

Water is vital for survival, but food is also lacking. As far as the human population’s eye can see, the only view is red sand, which has forced people to migrate with their animals to other locations, situated up to 150 km from any town. We trust this evaluation will be starting point in the development of a new structure that allows the Kenyan people to diversify their livelihoods and avoid conflicts with each other.”

SERGIO VASQUEZ

We will be keep you updated on the emergency intervention we will make in the district in the coming weeks. 

Update from drought-stricken Kenyan region

As we previously announced, WSPA recently travelled to Mwingi district in Kenya to assess the animal welfare need during the continued drought across the East African region. As WSPA’s veterinarian and Disaster Veterinary Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, I am sharing some video clips with you, shot during our recent assessment.  We will be keep you updated on the emergency intervention we will make in the district in the coming weeks.

Sergio Vasquez

As you can see in the first clip, livestock are severely weakened due to a lack of food and water

 

Here, I am summing up the gravity of the situation facing animals in the region

  

Vietnam villages save animals from floods following WSPA training

We have received this diary account from WSPA Asia Pacific vet Dr. Damian Woodberry who witnessed the difference that disaster preparedness training has made to two Vietnamese villages and their animals following recent flooding.

“The two agricultural villages of Quynh Luu and Yen Dinh in Vietnam’s Nghe An Province are accustomed to annual floods, but not on the scale of those seen this year, the worst in the province for 100 years.  Despite the devastation wrought on properties, with more than 20 homes swept away and many more completely flooded, prior preparedness work with communities paid off, with animals, upon which villagers depend for their livelihoods, spared from the powerful floodwaters. Cattle, buffalo, pigs, chickens and ducks are all raised in the affected villages.

When Tropical Storm Haima arrived unexpectedly early and ferociously at the end of June, residents of both villages were able to respond immediately due to a WSPA seminar on Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS), attended by representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, held only two months prior to the onset of the floods. 

The representatives recommended to the local authorities that they should integrate LEGS into their plans for early warning and natural disaster preparedness. When the danger of flooding became apparent, villagers took their livestock to safety, saving the lives of both humans and animals.

"The flood waters came extremely fast and were overwhelming,” villager Vee Tee Jian told me. “We had to flee to a friend's home. We moved one buffalo, four pigs, and 50 chickens up to higher ground. The pigs had to eat grass instead of their usual feed. It was very difficult during the floods, but we're lucky that both the people and animals survived. We are grateful to WSPA for their assistance and their donation of animal feed, because buying animal feed now is expensive,” she said, whilst hoisting a large bag of animal feed onto her back to take home.

Following April’s LEGS seminar, requests from the Vietnamese government began pouring in, asking for help in aiding rural agricultural communities. After conducting a Disaster Assessment Needs Analysis (DANA), we responded by supplying 85,150 kg of swine feed, medical equipment and refrigerators and iceboxes for medicine.  We also provided 583 plastic sheets to cover animal pens which are needed after the rainy season ends when villages situated on elevated areas can experience intense cold. The equipment benefitted local farmers and allowed representatives from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to have an easier time doing their jobs, treating potential fatal diseases.

Vian Vanlub, Assistant Administrator for Agricultural Development from the Ministry of Agriculture and stationed in Nghe An province, thanked us for  our intervention. “As soon as our request for help was sent, WSPA responded immediately. I'd like to give my heartfelt thanks on behalf of both villages. The assistance and knowledge given by WSPA has changed the way things are done, and not only were the animals saved, the lives of the farmers were too, as their livelihood depended on their animals,” he says. “The way WSPA works is a fine model for all government officials, who need to be better able to help those in the more isolated, far-off areas. We can learn from WSPA about reaching the people who raise these animals and giving them more hope.”

 

 

 

Delivering aid in Argentina

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