ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2006

L E T T E R S

Corrections and more info about the Ghana SPCA

On behalf of the Ghana SPCA, thank you very much for publishing an article in your May 2006 edition about the work we are doing in Accra, Kumasi, and in some of the rural areas of Ghana.

While we appreciate your interest in the GSPCA, I am writing to correct a few errors in the article.

Most importantly, Roland Azantilow and David Nyoagbe are co-founders of the GSPCA; it was very much a joint effort. While the article focused on Azantilow, David Nyoagbe is chair of the Ghana SPCA, and has been in that position since the organization started. Azantilow is vice chair. Nyoagbe oversees activities in the Accra area; Azantilow oversees the Kumasi area.

Nyoagbe’s interest in animal welfare was first sparked by the World Society for the Protection of Animals Kindness Clubs. For over 20 years he was a leader in first a school Kindness Club, and later in a community club. Gill Richardson of WSPA registered the Ghana SPCA after working with both Nyoagbe and Azantilow as coordinators of about 200 Kindness Clubs in Ghana.

In the article, you stated that the GSPCA is at the “forefront of vigilance” against the avian flu H5N1. While we are of course concerned about avian flu appearing in nearby countries, we are not at the forefront of avian flu surveillance and management. Avian flu surveillance has taken on a life of its own in Ghana. Donors, government, and the private sector have raised this issue to a level beyond the Ghana SPCA’s reach. The Ghana SPCA has been unable to get a chair at the table. We do keep apprised of the situation. One of the Ghana SPCA’s greatest supporters is a vet from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s Veterinary Services Directorate, who is at the forefront, but our input and impact, I’m afraid, will be small if H5N1 does appear inside Ghana.

I was curious about why you gave rabies data for 20 and 30 years ago, but did not update this information with more recent statistics. [Editor’s note: I had the data but misplaced it in editing.]

The Veterinary Services Directorate, sometimes with help from the Ghana SPCA, has done a highly commendable job in reducing rabies prevalence in Ghana. In 2004 there were 32 cases of rabies in dogs, and were six human deaths attributed to rabies. There were 1,038 dog bites reported in Ghana. The Veterinary Services Directorate vaccinated 113,150 dogs, 9,478 cats, and 218 monkeys.

––Karen Menczer
Secretary/treasurer
Ghana SPCA
Accra Branch: Phone: 233-21-0244-254-286 <nyoagbe@wwwplus.com>
or <perros2@earthlink.net>
Kumasi Branch:
Phone: 233-20-812-993
<razants@yahoo.com>

Using car as sign
for s/n in Ethiopia

We have seen your May 2006 article “From Youth for Conservation to the Africa Network for Animal Welfare,” through the Africa Animal Protection Network e-list <www.africaanimal.org>.

We hope we can do more for animal welfare in Africa in collaboration with ANAW. We are also very happy that ANIMAL PEOPLE is funding AfricAPN.

We have just covered the whole body of our car with information and pictures that show what HAPS is and is doing. Within just a few days many people started to give us their appreciation, after stopping us, asking for further information about our activity.

We hope to reach a million people in the next four years, as the sign material is guaranteed for four years.

––Efrem Legese
Chair
HAPS Ethiopia
P.O. Box 2495
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Phone: 251-011-654-47-56
<haps-eth@ethionet.et>
<www.an-group.org/x_haps.htm>

Sri Lanka, though a largely Buddhist country, has a bad record with regard to cruelty to animals, especially dogs. Under the Rabies Prevention Law of 1893, dogs are still routinely seized and killed.

Rabies cases have markedly dropped due to increased vaccination in recent years, but appeals to local officials and politicians to adopt more humane methods and sterilize dogs to control dog population growth have usually fallen on deaf ears. In cities such as Colombo and Kandy, the municipal authorities seize and kill even dogs who have been vaccinated and sterilized, with red collars to show it.

Sri Lanka’s new President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in keeping with an election pledge to introduce strict laws against cruelty to animals, in May 2006, as part of the celebrations to mark the 2550th birthday of the Buddha, ordered that cruelly killing dogs for rabies eradication and dog population control should be stopped.

To strengthen the hand of the President, against political forces and vested interests who are keen to continue the outdated cruel seize-and-kill policy, we appeal for letters to be sent to him, showing appreciation of his initiative against cruelty to animals, especially dogs, and urging him to bring in new legislation that will recommend modern, scientific and humane methods for rabies eradication and dog population control.

Please address your letters to: H. E. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, Temple Trees, Colombo, Sri Lanka; or e-mail to <addlcos@president-office.lk>; or fax to 94-11-2542919.

––Sathva Mithra
Friends of Animals (Sri Lanka)
73/28 Sri Saranankara Place
Dehiwela, Sri Lanka
Phone: 94-11-2735182
<sathvamithralanka@yahoo.com>

Himalayas

VetCharity is planning to commence an Animal Birth Control and rabies vaccination program in Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas, in July 2006. Ladakh is the largest district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, renowned for remote mountain beauty and Tibetan Buddhist culture. VetCharity is seeking veterinary volunteers to help from July through Sept-ember with catching, neutering, vaccinating, and releasing street dogs in Leh, the state capital.

––Dr. Catherine Schuetze
Secretary, VetCharityOrg
Animal Health & Welfare Programs in
Asia, Australia and the Pacific
Phone: +61-404-003982
<info@vetcharity.org>
<www.vetcharity.org>

Bullock cart races

Re your May 2006 article “Blue Cross of India wins case vs. bullock cart racing,” which explained that Justice R. Banu-mathi of the Madras High Court on March 29 directed the Tamil Nadu state government to prevent cruelty to animals in connection with bullock cart racing, the case was not filed by the Blue Cross. The cart racers asked the court to direct the police to give the petitioners permission to hold the races, which the police gave for some time after the application was made.

––Chinny Krishna
Blue Cross of India
1-A Eldams Rd.
Chennai
Tamil Nadu 600018 India
Phone: 91-44-234-1399
<drkrishna@aspick.com>
<www.BlueCross.org.in>

(LETTERS CONTINUE HERE)

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