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Home > WSPA's Work > Animal Rescue > Emergencies Emergencies
Every year natural disasters or war wreak havoc on millions of people and their environment. The human tragedy of these incidents is well documented, but less well known is the plight of animals. All too often, they are the forgotten victims. Wild animals often have to flee their habitat to survive and domesticated animals are at risk of remaining trapped and abandoned without food or water on farms, in people‘s homes or at zoos. By rescuing these animals WSPA is helping them and the local community recover from the tragedy of a natural or man-made disaster. Animals can play a key practical role in bringing hope to devastated communities, from pets being reunited with their owners to invaluable livestock herds continuing to provide for traditional farming communities. WSPA has been responding to emergencies for 25 years and is now known as being the first and sometimes only organisation that will go to the heart of a disaster to save animals. WSPA’s trained and experienced rescue teams are often called on to coordinate local emergency relief operations. This can include working alongside local vets to provide badly needed medicines and supplies for treating sick or injured animals, and distributing food and water to desperately starving and dehydrated animals that may have been abandoned for days or weeks on end. These rescue teams also help to move animals away from danger, create temporary shelters and rehome rescued animals. As a member of the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council, WSPA is often given cooperation and assistance by UN peacekeeping forces during the course of its work. Hundreds of abandoned pets and livestock were saved from volcano-hit Montserrat in the mid-1990s, with a series of airlifts organised by WSPA as part of its work on the Caribbean island. WSPA swung into action once more during the forest fires that swept through Indonesia in the late 1990s, helping to save the country‘s highly endangered orangutans from the flames that destroyed many parts of their natural habitat. As well as working to protect animals threatened by natural catastrophes, WSPA has a long track record of assisting animals caught up in human conflict. Some of the war zones that WSPA has gone to in recent years include Rwanda, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Kosovo, Bosnia, the Gulf and Afghanistan. It is not a foregone conclusion that every single disaster or conflict will have a direct impact on animals. But in situations where animals are in desperate need of help, WSPA works with the aid of its international network of member societies to do what it can. Responding to crisis WSPA‘s trained and experienced rescue teams often act as a catalyst to establish an organised and local response. This can range from working alongside local vets to provide badly needed medicines and supplies for treating sick or injured animals, to distributing food and water to desperately starving and dehydrated animals that may have been abandoned for days or weeks on end. WSPA also helps to move animals away from danger, create temporary shelters or rehome rescued animals. In many places, the survival and wellbeing of animals is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Animals can play a key practical role in helping people get back to normal, whether it be the morale of reuniting lost pets with their owners, or helping to save invaluable livestock herds and thereby ensuring that traditional farming communities are able to continue as before. Senior member of WSPA‘s disaster relief team Trevor Wheeler said WSPA was often the only organisation that responded to disasters which affected animals in certain parts of the world. “Without WSPA, many more animals would suffer or perish and many families would be without a much cherished resource or companion,” he said. ”People who love their animals often have no time to save them during times of crisis and they are always grateful for our help.” In Kosovo, WSPA staff came across the case of one family whose pet dogs had been shot as they attempted to guard their owner‘s abandoned farm from retreating Serbian forces. WSPA helped provide emergency veterinary treatment and the dogs miraculously survived and were reunited with their grateful owners once the conflict had ended. The conflict in Kosovo was a classic example of how animals are often deliberately targeted during times of war, as a way of trying to destroy the morale of the enemy and damage any attempts to salvage valuable livestock herds. UN help WSPA enjoys official status with the United Nations (being a member of the UN‘s Economic and Social Council) and is often given cooperation and assistance by UN peacekeeping forces during the course of its work. This also helps WSPA to respond quickly and secure access into countries ahead of time. A recent example of this was in Afghanistan, where a WSPA team was able to enter Kabul soon after the collapse of the Taliban regime. Unfortunately, recent history shows WSPA’s rescue teams are never quiet for long. Over the last few years operations have included a mercy mission to help the animals of Afghanistan‘s Kabul zoo, distribution of aid to animals affected by the floods in central Europe and Thailand, dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes in El Salvador and giving aid to a WSPA member society in Zimbabwe helping animals abandoned as a result of the country‘s controversial farm clearances. | ||
The forgotten victims