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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2006

Livestock disasters show limits of humane response

ADDIS ABABA, FRESNO, SURAT, VISAKHAPATNAM--Summer 2006 disasters on three continents demonstrated both the vulnerability of livestock to fast-changing global weather patterns and the limited capacity of the humane community to help animals in agricultural numbers.

Dairy cattle were most visibly hurt.

In Ethiopia the crisis involved drought-weakened desert cattle suddenly having to cope with fast-rushing high water.

Along both the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea coasts of India, cattle well-adapted to the drought-and-monsoon cycle were imperiled in part because they are now kept in unnaturally dense numbers in floodplains surrounding fast-growing cities.

In central California, the crisis involved Holstein dairy cattle, bred and hormonally stimulated to produce more than three times as much milk apiece as the typical Ethiopian or Indian cow.

Holsteins have the bone structure to carry the additional liquid weight--at least through a few pregnancies and milk production cycles--because they are a northern breed, who evolved body mass to cope with winter snows and wind chill.

In hot climates, extra body mass and liquid weight means they have difficulty cooling off, especially if unable to get enough water. California dairy farmers use fans and machines that spray a fine water mist to keep their Holsteins cool, but the technology was not enough this year, as the air temperature in Fresno, near the center of the Central Valley, soared to 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

More than 25,000 dairy cattle died on industrial-sized farms between Redding and Bakersfield during the last two weeks of July, California Dairy Campaign president Andy Zylstra told Agence France-Presse. An estimated 120 cattle per day died in San Joaquin County alone.

Regional milk production dropped 25%, the Land O'Lakes Creamery in Tulare reported. The $5.4 billion California dairy industry lost about $1 billion in cattle and milk output, but farmers who kept their cows alive enjoyed higher raw milk prices.
Poultry suffered in even greater numbers, including at least 700,000 chickens and 160,000 turkeys, but hidden from view in closed barns.

Animal welfare organizations noted the developing crisis in electronic bulletins, but were not asked for help--and even if asked, the entire animal welfare infrastructure of the region may have fewer assets than some of the afflicted factory farms.
The scant news coverage of the California disaster focused on carcasses piling up far faster than pet food companies could render them. Eventually Fresno County declared a state of emergency, allowing farmers to dump cattle carcasses in landfills.

From drought to flood

The drought in California contrasted with the watery scenes in Ethiopia and India, whose droughts came earlier in the year.
At least 10,000 cattle, sheep, and goats died in February and March in the Borana region of Ethiopia, according to Agence France Press, leaving herding families desperate to keep the few animals they had left. That set up the drama that followed after mid-August flash floods killed at least 900 lowland Ethiopians and displaced 48,000.

"Stranded on hillocks by the floodwaters, herders in the southwestern town of Omerate leaned on sticks and stared across the virtual sea separating them from their cows and goats," Reuters reported.

"Pleading with them to leave, rescuers on boats brought food and supplies to the encircled residents in the town near the Kenyan border, where the Omo River burst its banks, killing 364 people, many while they were sleeping," Reuters added.
"They are encircled by flood water and they are facing certain death unless they are rescued, but they have refused to budge," said relief operations director Major Solomon Gebre-Ebegzabher.

"Survival without cattle is meaningless. I would prefer to die than lose my cattle. No milk, no life. No cattle, no life," explained displaced herder Awala Rendela.

The stranded herders mistrusted official promises that lost animals would be replaced. "We hope that they will heed the call and register the animals lost in the flood," said district administrator Dirma Gmewenya. "We have no means to rescue cattle."

"We are afraid that this great loss of both humans and animals will continue in the other parts of the nation that have great dams and rivers," Homeless Animals Protection Society of Ethiopia cofounder Efrem Legese told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "I know very well the geography and demography around the Omo River. That shows me the continuity of the problem.

"We are sad that we could not participate in saving lives," Legese added. Operating the first nonprofit dog and cat sterilization clinic in Addis Ababa, HAPS is far from the flooding, and has no resources for disaster relief, but both HAPS cofounders, Legese and Hana Kifle, formerly held wildlife conservation jobs in the afflicted region.

The unusually heavy rain in the Ethiopian highlands that precipitated the floods may have been due to changing global weather patterns, but Girma Feyissa of the newspaper Fortune hinted that the deaths and damage resulted from reduced attention to donkeys, who are still the mainstay of Ethiopian transportation.

In former emperor Haile Selassie's time, Feyissa recalled, donkeys running with their ears laid back warned humans of approaching storms and floods.

Monsoons

As many as 500 people were killed, and more than two million were displaced by monsoon flooding in India. The monsoons are an annual event, and the history of Indian civilization is largely a history of trying to retain enough water from the monsoons to survive the dry season, but traditionally monsoon rains were relatively gentle, if heavy, and catastrophic floods were relatively rare until the frequency and severity of tropical storms began a marked increase in recent years.
More than 100,000 animals were at risk in mid-August in 5,412 flooded villages surrounding Visakhapatnam, e-mailed Visakha SPCA founder Pradeep Kumar Nath.

Nath initiated outreach to villages in the Srikakulam and Vizianagaram coastal plains and wetlands on July 22, trying to reinforce their response capacity just before the worst of the rains hit. Many of the villages also received Visakha SPCA help after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

"We treated foot and mouth disease, helped village dogs, provided feed, and explained to the villagers the use of the medicines and the dosages that they need to continue to give to many hundreds of animals," Nath told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "We also educated them about preventive measures and provided flyers in the local language."

After the flooding started, "We will probably face just sheer daunting rescue activities," Nath anticipated.

Nath guessed right, as 38 villages in Srikakulam were isolated by flooding, but the Visakha SPCA by then had little way to help.
Having recently rebuilt the Visakha SPCA headquarters, after it was inundated by a September 2005 typhoon, Nath did not anticipate that it would take another hit so soon. Yet it did. Landslides killed five people nearby, and 25 people were reported missing.

"The shelter landscape has been altered," Nath e-mailed on August 4. "At least 57 trees have been uprooted. Trees have fallen and destroyed the roofs of our Animal Birth Control program dog area. Our laborers have not come back to work," being preoccupied with repairing damage to their homes, "so all projects are on hold. One of our drivers is down with a fever. The cattle are not well. Two have died. But the situation is not as bad as last year," Nath added, "because our new structures have kept away the mud which is so hard on their hooves. Still, 180 cattle do not have a shelter."

After losing electrical power, the shelter staff had to pump 30,000 litres of water per day for the cattle by hand.
"There are many clippings in the local press," Nath noted, "that remind people that animals require help during these crisis times as well."

On the far side of India, e-mailed Sarah Pickering of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, WSPA funded the Ahmendabad-based Animal Help Foundation to send two teams of 12 veterinarians each to treat approximately 20,000 animals suffering from the effects of flooding. They expected to help about 500 animals per day, mostly cattle and work animals.

The Animal Help subsidiary Animal Help in Emergency And Disaster, Team AHEAD for short, is the first charity in India formed specifically to do animal disaster relief.

The city of Surat may have been worst hit--and the flooding revived bad memories. Academy for Disaster Management, Education, Planning and Training director U. Gauthamadas warned through local media that, "The spectre of the 1994 plague looms large," because of poor sanitation that encouraged a rat population explosion.

Normally street dogs control rats in India, but Surat officials poisoned the local street dogs, leading to the worst outbreak of bubonic plague worldwide of the past 41 years. Officially, 57 people died and 693 were confirmed to have had plague, but more than 6,000 were treated for plague symptoms.

Surat is still not a healthy place to do post-monsoon relief work, People for Animals/Mumbai managing trustee Dharmesh Solanki found, having to withdraw due to a high fever after only one day of assisting the local animal rescue organization PRAYAS.

"More than 90% of the city was underwater during the floods," Solanki reported. "Thousands of pigs, dogs, cows, buffaloes, goats, etc. perished."

Solanki found "dead pigs lying near the railway station," and "a pig who had given birth to at least eight piglets near the railway track. I tried to shift the piglets to a safer area, but the mother pig was too aggressive," Solanki said.

Solanki treated for dogs for minor injuries and fed them, before becoming too ill to continue.