WSPA - Animals in Disasters Blog

WSPA's work in Thailand

At the start of the flooding in Thailand, WSPA assessed the needs and gaps to see who is helping animals and where, and got in touch with other animal welfare organisations (including Soi Dogs Foundation and WFFT, who received half a tonne of pet food and a number of cages to help their rescue efforts). We use this information to determine that our efforts will not be duplicating the work of others.

We always follow this process as it has been proven to ensure that our supporters’ contributions will help the greatest number of animals and the communities that depend on them.

Like others in the field, in the urgent phase, our teams rescued, fed and ferried around 6000 animals. At the same time, we continued to work with government agencies and organizations, supporting their efforts to ensure relief work is coordinated in the most effective way possible. The Thai Government Department of Livestock and Development (DLD) are the government agency responsible for responding to animal needs in these floods, so they are best placed to make change at the largest scale possible. Working with the DLD is important because it means we can ensure relief reaches the most number of animals.

In the next phase of our work in Thailand, we have just committed to improving conditions at several shelters and will continue to feed animals: we expect this second phase to help an additional 4000 pets, as well as the cattle in Phichit province.

Por Thrisadee Sahawong, a renowned actor in Thailand, who has been involved with several WSPA campaigns in the past, heard about the work that we have been doing in the aftermath of the floods. As an animal lover, he wanted to help out in any way possible. Por recently joined the WSPA team on our operation to distribute five tonnes of pet food to some very needy dogs and cats, severely affected by the current flooding.

Thailand’s Channel 3 News followed the actor as he travelled with WSPA three hours from Bangkok to the town of Wat Suankaew. There, he helped to deliver a second batch of live-saving food to 500 dogs and 300 cats in the community, as well as seeing vets treat sick animals. Take a look at their news report, subtitled by WSPA Thailand.

Prevention is the key to Central American and Mexican flood response

As the flooding across the region subsides and the scale of the impact becomes apparent, our teams begin work in the recovery period, which consists of long-term preparedness and capacity building efforts to reduce the risk to animals from future disasters.

Our Disaster Assessment Response Teams (DARTs) found a considerable level of rural devastation in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, as well as along  Mexico’s Pacific coast. Indeed, in the affected and assessed areas of Central America, an average of 20 to 60 percent of farm animals were affected, and while many animals were evacuated to higher areas, limited carrying capacity coupled with eventual pasture loss is expected to cause forage deficits in the near future. Therefore, WSPA has decided to focus on long-term national preparedness work which is crucial in these parts of the world where natural disasters and flooding are a regular occurrence.

Starting this month, WSPA will promote the creation of farm animal censuses in each Central American country and Mexico, emphasising their importance in being able to successfully plan for a disaster. We will also provide training to the region’s agriculture institutions in disaster risk reduction and in livestock emergency guidelines and standards (LEGS). 

WSPA will also use its expertise to develop communications for use by agriculture institutions, local governments, and development agencies in disasters, like the public Service Announcements (PSAs) recently used in El Salvador and Mexico. 

Update from Thailand floods

A few more photos have come through from our team in Thailand, and you can see some of the animals our team is helping to feed. The few animals you see here are by no means the full extent of our work – it is just a reminder of why we do what we do!

As with every disaster, WSPA has followed certain basic principles: we started the operation in Thailand by conducting a thorough needs assessment to decide what the most critical needs are, which ones are being met by other groups and where our help would be most useful to fill the gaps.
 
Our needs assessment showed that one of  the most critical needs is for food with which to keep rescued animals alive in the temporary shelters they are being brought to.

WSPA staff and volunteers help move these dogs from the Saunkaew temple (where they were initially sheltered) to an alternate shelter on higher ground, when the temple itself was flooded. Over 100 dogs were moved from the temple to the new shelter.

The dogs are patient, perhaps sensing the dangers they are exposed to, as our team transfers them from one temporary shelter to another.

Even as the waters rose, some dogs were unwilling to leave their territories, the homes they were so accustomed to. The caretaker of the temple, who was a familiar figure for the dogs, has helped coax the dogs into settling in the new shelter, accepting food from her regularly.

The volunteers used ingenious solutions – plastic tubs, cages, boats – to transport the animals to higher ground to keep them safe from the flood waters.

A large cage suffices to house a whole brood of puppies, as they are prepared for transportation to the safer shelter.

As the water levels have risen, there are more people than there are boats to carry them now, so our team have been heading out on large trucks.  Boats are only one way of accessing the flooded areas, and not always the best (or safest) choice.  Our Response Team is prepared to head out in the most effective way possible, and will be out on trucks and boats to continue delivering services and supporting our response partners in the coming days.

 

 

 

 

Teams assess hurricane impact on Central America

The three WSPA teams assessing the impact of Hurricane Jova have reported back a significant level of devastation in the three countries.

In Guatemala, WSPA staff and members of local partner ESAP made up the Disaster Assessment Response Team (DART), assessing 18 communities in the badly-hit districts of Jutiapa and Santa Rosa. Communities here are dependent on agriculture and livestock, which have been decimated by flooding from the hurricane.

Between 40-60% of grazing pastures have been severely impacted, though it is hoped that a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) have helped to prevent disease from spreading in the aftermath of the disaster. Announcements were broadcast on local radio warning people about how to limit the spread of infections in their livestock. 

In Costa Rica’s most affected area, Guanacaste province, members of our local Veterinary Emergency Response Unit (VERU), together with local animal husbandry officials, visited a total of 20 affected communities. In some areas, up to 60% of livestock were affected by the disaster, whilst up to half of all pastures have been impacted. 

We will keep ypu updated you further on the work we will be doing to help the animals in Central America in the upcoming weeks.

Talking to the team in Thailand

Dr Ian Dacre is just back at the WSPA Bangkok office, after having helped with the animal relief work he is overseeing in Thailand. In this video interview we conducted via Skype, Ian tells us what the situation there has been like.

 

In this second video, Ian describes the sights he has seen during his work, including some of the ingenious ways in which the Thai people are protecting their animals.

 

 

WSPA is distributing large consignments of pet food to help sustain thousands of animals over the next several weeks. Much of the hard work – which our team is doing along with volunteers – involves re-bagging tonnes of this food into manageable quantities, redistributing it in lots of varying sizes and then transporting it to through mud, floods and traffic jams, to the end recipients. 

 

 

Over the next few days the WSPA team and the volunteers who are helping us, will continue the arduous process of feed distribution. It isn’t always pleasant work, but at the end of the day, everyone feels good knowing how their work is helping defenceless animals survive in these trying times.