Relief Efforts for Animals Difficult after Catastrophic Tsunami

[Ladybast]

Friends, it isn't true that the animals were "just fine." Wild animals often escaped the tsunami because they hear nature's warnings and we don't. But the domestic animals were helpless.

http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/hsi_asia/rel

The Human Society of the United States

Relief Efforts for Animals Difficult after Catastrophic Tsunami

December 30, 2004

Compounding the human tragedy unfolding in South Asia after a massive tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean, animal victims are now beginning to emerge as well. While the impact of this natural disaster on animal populations is currently very difficult to assess, Humane Society International (HSI) and its partners in the region are working to support disaster relief efforts in the affected countries.

Undoubtedly, countless animals died and were washed out to sea by the initial tidal waves, while the bodies of thousands of others litter the beaches and fields of devastated areas, complicating the disaster relief process. The necessity of disposing of both human and animal remains to contain the spread of diseases like cholera and typhoid is still critical.

And while the relief efforts of animal welfare workers in Asia understandably remain focused on human victims of the disaster, many are preparing to spend the coming days and weeks fighting disease and helping as many victims as possible—both human and animal.

HSI Asia Director Sherry Grant is on the ground in Indonesia now and will be conducting an urgent-needs assessment in other countries affected in the region as well. Below are some initial reports from our humane society partners in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India.

A veterinarian from Medan, Indonesia, noted that Banda Aceh, the main city of Aceh province in northern Sumatra, is all but leveled. He noted that few, if any, animals likely survived the tsunami, and that there would be little to do for animals except help to dispose of their bodies. He suggested that surviving animals would be forced to drink open sewage and may likely die from subsequent gastrointestinal problems.

In Bali, Indonesia, members of the animal welfare group Yudisthira marked their payday by giving generously—several donated nearly half of their pay—to the relief efforts in Sumatra. The group then used their mobile animal clinic to collect donations and filled their van with bottled water, canned fish, milk, and dried fruit to send to regions affected by the tsunami.

A caller to Radio Mirchi in India told how a dog who had just given birth that morning to six puppies grabbed one of them in her mouth and watched helplessly while the other five were washed away. The dog then swam to higher ground with the sixth puppy.

In Madras, India, volunteers spent much of the weekend helping any animals they could—freeing tethered goats, cattle, and dogs, and rescuing misplaced dogs and snakes, including one king cobra. The snakes were handed over to the Forest Department's Snake Park.

Near Nagapattinam, India, witnesses reported dead cattle littering the fields as aid workers conducted mass burials of unclaimed human corpses brought in on tractors.

Margot Park, manager of the HSI-sponsored Soi Dog animal rescue project in Phuket, Thailand, reported that problems with animals were beginning to surface. Even as she sheltered stranded tourists who barely escaped the tsunami, Park noted that dogs on the beaches lack food and water because the food stalls and restaurants that previously sustained them were all swept away. But the destruction was so overwhelming that even the local dogs were "totally dazed—didn't want to touch food," Park lamented. "This all makes many other things so petty."

Sadly, three monks died when their temple in nearby Kamala was destroyed. When Park visited she found several of their dogs huddled in the only structure still standing in the complex, a water tower.

Leone Cosens, an animal welfare worker who helped establish the Phuket Animal Welfare Society, was killed when she was swept away by a wave while trying to warn tourists at Yanui Beach, near Laem Phromthep.

Despite unconfirmed reports that many wild animals survived the flooding in Sri Lanka's Yala National Park, it may be too early to gauge the tsunami's impact on all populations there. "Only so much can be seen from a helicopter, and the area to be searched from the ground is probably substantial and hard to navigate right now," explained John Hadidian, director of HSUS's Urban Wildlife program.

Grant explains that any animal welfare advocates working in the midst of human tragedy have three immediate goals: to remove animal carcasses to prevent the spread of disease; contain starving dogs scavenging for food; and preserve the lives of farm animals needed by subsistence farmers. In addition to preventing suffering whenever possible, these goals are part of the agenda for human survival as well.

But right now their efforts are just focused on saving lives. Perhaps the hardest-hit region, Grant says, lies along the northwest coast of Aceh and includes the cities of Meulaboh and Tapaktuan. With virtually all communications knocked out, little has been heard from the region, which lies just a few miles east of the epicenter of the underwater earthquake that triggered the tsunami.

"There are thought to be a million people living in the region," Grant says, "and the silence is ominous."

Please click the link below to find out how to help the Humane Society International's Disaster Relief efforts.

https://secure.hsus.org/01/disaster_fund_asian_tsunami?source=gababy