World Animal Protection - Animals in Disasters Blog

Update from Japan: An “Emotional Roller Coaster”

The people of Japan have been on an emotional roller coaster during the last two weeks with many aftershocks and other scares – such as the fear of radioactive iodine in the water and food, as well as shortages on rice, milk and bottled water. Yet, despite all of these challenges, the local community continues to regroup, unite and help each other through this trying time.

We are seeing the same sentiments during our disaster relief and recovery work with the surviving animal population.

As WSPA reported last week, there are an estimated 30,000 companion animals in need of emergency shelter in Japan’s affected areas. While some of the evacuation centres allow animals, many do not. With no other choice, pet owners have resorted to tying up their animals outside the centres in near-freezing conditions. Some of the “luckier” pets are staying in their owners’ cars.

Local vet clinics, animal control shelters, boarding kennels, pet shops, dog groomers and even private houses have all pitched in to house some of these pets – despite the fact that many of these businesses have damaged buildings, power/water loss, and even lost family and staff. Additionally, at the request of Japan’s Animal Disaster Response Team (ADRT) and WSPA member society the Japanese Animal Welfare Society (JAWS), local vets are taking a tally of all animals in affected areas and identifying locations for the setup of nearly 200 temporary animal shelters near human evacuation centres – 30 of which WSPA has committed to funding over the next three months.

Vets have also been micro-chipping and taking photos of stray pets, which are then posted on a common government website in hopes of reuniting owners with their lost pets.

In the immediate near-term, food, medicines and equipment are very much needed to help carry out ongoing animal relief efforts. While many goods have been donated and there are thousands of trained volunteers on hand, storage space has become a significant issue. Meanwhile, because of damaged roads and petrol shortage, it has also been difficult for trucks to deliver supplies to the affected areas. We’ve even heard stories about children who have formed bicycle caravans, and gone into hard-to-reach places with relief supplies in their backpacks and on bike racks.

WSPA prepares to set up animal shelters in Japan

WSPA vet Dr. Damian Woodberry is back in Japan to start preparations for our work to help the animals there.

Dr. Woodberry arrived in Tokyo on 28th March, where he met with WSPA’s Disaster Liaison Officer for Japan as well as our local partners JAWS to discuss WSPA’s plans for the recovery period.

While in Japan, Dr. Woodberry will be starting preparations for the establishment of 30 temporary shelters to house the pets of evacuated families, as announced last week. He will support the identification of possible locations for the shelters, as well as establish suppliers for the materials needed, and conduct all the necessary logistical groundwork for their set up.      

Meanwhile, a separate earthquake occurred in the southern Asian nation of Myanmar on 25 March, killing 75 people. We were immediately in touch with our Disaster Liaison Officer in the country who told us that, although there were human fatalities, there is no animal need resulting from the disaster at this stage.

WSPA launches action plan for Japan’s animals

Japan is a nation of pet lovers and many families affected have lost animals, been forced to leave them behind or have taken them to evacuation centres where there is limited space, food and water.

Local vets and animal organisations have been doing their best in an incredibly tough situation but we need to act now to make sure they continue to get the support they need to care for these animals.  

We have just launched an appeal and co-ordinated effort for the post-disaster care of Japan’s animals. WSPA aims to raise $150,000 for Japanese animals to help cover the critical recovery period in the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami. 

Funds will be mainly directed towards the set up of 30 temporary shelters for pets via the Animal Disaster Response Team (ADRT), a coalition of local animal groups, including WSPA’s local member society, Japan Animal Welfare Society (JAWS). Food and water needs are being directly co-ordinated by the ADRT. 

A WSPA team entered Japan just four days after the earthquake and tsunami to assess the potential need for animals. The sheer size of the area affected and the destruction of the transport infrastructure, plus many initial aftershocks made it a lengthy assessment. 

The Disaster Assessment Needs Analysis (DANA) estimates that between 16,000 and 19,000 pets are affected in two of the worst hit regions alone. Countless other animals and livestock had to be abandoned in the exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear power station after immediate orders to evacuate. 

The DANA points out that most owners took their pets to the evacuation centres, where they have remained since. However, pets which were not evacuated are thought to have died in the tsunami, as there are few lost or abandoned animals reported to date.

Approximately 350,000 people were staying in evacuation centres during the DANA and it is estimated that between 7-10% of evacuees have animals with them. The assessment estimates that, in total, potentially over 30,000 animals are in need of emergency shelter.

We hope to establish 30 temporary animal shelters near human evacuation centres so families can continue to visit and help care for their pets, and to help ADRT to support local vets so that they can continue to provide veterinary care and treatment to animals injured in the tsunami. 

Tokyo in a sombre mood

Since we arrived in Tokyo on the 15th of March, we must have felt over a dozen quakes. On Wednesday, we had an early morning wake up call, as a tsunami warning was issued and sirens set blazing.

Immediately upon arrival, we were met by Hiromichi Ohno, our Disaster Liaison Officer in Japan. Hiromichi has been invaluable, with his advice on everything from clearing immigration upon arrival to setting up meetings with the various ministry officials.

We are working with member societies such as the Japanese Animal Welfare Society (JAWS) and looking at ways to help them enter the restricted areas and help the animals people have taken with them into the evacuation shelters (when this has been permitted). The situation is still very serious; not only with the well reported story of the ongoing nuclear threat, but of the as yet under-reported story of what has happened to all the displaced people and their animals.

As we have said before, every disaster is different and this time we are looking at three disasters at the same time. Japan is known for its earthquake preparedness and one source stated that the earthquake may have actually only been responsible for one hundred of the human deaths. It was however the earthquake which damaged the tsunami defences, giving the tsunami far greater impact, killing tens of thousands. Now the media are focusing on the nuclear threat which to date has not been reported to have killed a single animal. It is however hampering greatly our access to the affected zone, and may go on to do this for such a time that rescuing animals within the affected zone is no longer an option.

WSPA prepares to head into Japan

Early tomorrow morning (local time) a WSPA Disaster Assessment and Response Team (DART) from the WSPA Asia office will depart for Japan, following days of monitoring the situation from afar and keeping up constant discussion with partner organisations within Japan.

Dr. Ian Dacre and Dr. Damian Woodberry, two WSPA vets with years of experience in operations to help animals in disasters, will start by signing up to join the ‘shelter cluster’ coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). As OCHA has stated in its Situation Report of 14 March, “search and rescue remains the priority in tsunami and earthquake affected areas”. Considering the large numbers of people that will need to be housed in temporary shelters, as we reported yesterday, we expect there to be a significant impact on the animals that were part of these families.

The WSPA team are also hoping to meet with contacts in the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries MAFF) as well as the Ministry of Environment (MoE), who have already been informed of our willingness to support their efforts in the field.

Meanwhile we’ve received a very positive update from our member society the Kanagawa Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (KSPCA); they inform us that several animal welfare groups in Japan have come together to launch a coordinated effort to help the animals affected by last week’s quake and resultant tsunami.

Being present in Japan will mean that the WSPA DART are able to extend more tangible support to these groups working in the field, who with their presence on the ground, have a far superior understanding of the needs facing animals in Japan right now.

Internal displacement in Japan – a growing concern

Although there is conflicting news about the nuclear situation in Japan, with some agencies reporting calls for evacuation of increasingly wider radius around the Fukushima plant, there is more certainty about the massive challenge of internal displacement that these evacuations will cause.
 
Thousands of people have already been forced to evacuate their homes following Friday’s quake and resultant tsunami; with the increased threat from the nuclear plant, as well as the potential for further aftershocks, it is inevitable that Japanese authorities will be faced with the tremendous challenge of providing safe temporary housing for the displaced population.
 
As we have seen in our work with other displaced communities elsewhere in the world, a top challenge for the Japanese authorities managing these shelters will be the need to house families together – families that would consider their ‘families’ are incomplete without their pets.
 
As we mentioned in our earlier post, we have been in touch with the OIE in Japan, offering our support and technical advice, specifically for including animals in the disaster relief plans that authorities are drawing up now. Even as we investigate the possibilities of getting staff into Japan in order to help more directly, we have been told that our offer for support has been passed on to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) as well as the Ministry of Environment (MoE).
 
Over the next couple of days, we expect to be able to update you with much more concrete information – regarding the inclusion of animals in shelter management, as well as the possibility of WSPA sending a Disaster Assessment and Response Team (DART) into Japan.
 
Stay tuned!

Tsunami passes Americas without major damage; Japan continues to be a major concern

Our global DM team has had a busy twenty four hours, tracking the movement of the tsunami across the Pacific Ocean, and making all necessary arrangements to mitigate what seemed to be a catastrophe in the making. Fortunately, though, the tsunami lost force as it travelled across the ocean, meaning there was significantly less damage to coastal communities across the Americas than originally feared. 

Nonetheless, the threat – and the WSPA response to it – helped prove an important lesson: preparation always pays!  

As the tsunami advanced towards coastal communities in Latin America, the DM team launched a coordinated effort with the trained and tested Veterinary Emergency Response Units (VERU) on stand by, reporting on progress and ready to swing into action as needed. Typically, the VERU teams spend months working closely with local authorities and communities in vulnerable areas, to help minimise the impact of natural disasters. Drills are practiced in ‘safe’ times – to prepare communities for effective evacuation that include their animals as well.

As part of the preparations following the alert yesterday, radio stations along the coast have been airing our public service announcement, reminding communities to include their animals in evacuation plans. 

The situation in Japan, though, continues to be a major concern. The country has been rocked by several aftershocks, some as intense as 6.8 on the Richter scale. We are keeping a particularly close eye on the developments at Fukushima, where the nuclear power plant is thought to have suffered structural damage as a result of the quake, increasing the risks of radiation leakage. We continue to remain in close contact with our member society the Japan Animal Welfare Society and with the OIE in Japan, in order to ascertain the best way to provide support for the animals affected by this disaster. However, until the situation with the radiation threat is clearer we will continue to rely on information from within Japan; WSPA cannot send staff into situations presenting dangers outside our area of expertise, as the safety of our teams is paramount in our operations procedures.

 

Global team on standby to assist in the Pacific

WSPA’s global disaster management team is monitoring the situation in the Pacific region as the Japan earthquake of today triggers a massive tsunami. Staff from both the WSPA Central America office and the WSPA Asia office are poised to respond to animal need as events unfold across this region, including in some of the most vulnerable island states.

Considering the scale of the disaster and the impacts on human populations, it is inevitable that there will be concomitant risks to animal welfare too.

Regarding the situation in Japan, we have already been in contact with our member society, the Japan Animal Welfare Society who are on the ground and can provide us with the most accurate information. We have also been in touch with the OIE in Japan to find out what the official response plans are, and to offer our technical assistance and our experience from the Asian tsunami of 2004.

The risk to the nuclear facility presents a grave concern for people and animals in Japan, and will be one of the factors informing our decisions – as it will most other aid efforts – to send teams into Japan, so we are keeping a close eye on information about this.

We will keep this page updated with all the new information we get so do check back regularly.

WSPA to help Bolivian disaster victims

A team from WSPA South America has embarked on an assessment of animal needs following Bolivia’s recent flooding and mudslides, which have killed 56 people and affected 11,000 families, according to local member society Animales S.O.S.

The areas worst affected by weeks of heavy rain, followed by mudslides are the capital La Paz and the town of Bení. The assessment team, consisting of WSPA and Animales S.O.S. staff is to spend five days on the ground examining potential need for both livestock and companion animals in the two areas. It is expected that food, water and shelter could be required, though the numbers of animals affected will not be known until the assessment is complete.

WSPA also continues to closely monitor the situation near Mount Balusan in the Philippines following recent volcanic eruptions and the spewing of ash.

WSPA funds member society Egypt emergency work

© The Brooke

After extensive assessment of the situation in Egypt following the revolution, WSPA has decided to provide funds to our member society, The Brooke, which has the capacity on the ground to assist the animals most in need.

The problem is primarily a collapse in the livelihoods of the owners of working equines employed in the tourism industry, meaning that many cannot afford to feed their horses, mules and donkeys.

The Brooke has fed almost 2,000 animals in Egypt since the troubles began and conducted almost 4,000 veterinary treatments. WSPA’s funds will help fund almost one kilo of feed per day for one month to 1,000 working equines in four areas most impacted by the unrest during this critical timeframe. The Brooke distributes the emergency aid through community leaders, ensuring its effective delivery.

© The Brooke

Camels, also heavily employed in the tourism industry, are being fed and given medical attention by the local Member Society the Egyptian Society of Animals Friends (ESAF). Just last week, ESAF treated 475 camels.

A typical situation encountered is that of Osama Gamal, a horse owner in Giza. “Some days I can only offer my horse half the amount of food that I normally would,” he said. “My family and I are forced to spend all our savings to feed ourselves and the animals. Soon we will have nothing to spend and I dread to imagine how things can get worse.”