Rabies Prevention

Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society Wins Prestigious Award for Rabies Prevention Work

Oct 05

The Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society (LAWCS) is proud to announce that it has been awarded the World Rabies Day MSD Award for Sub-Saharan Africa. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of rabies prevention. The judging panel included individuals from the CDC, FAO, OIE, WHO, MSD and GARC, and MSD Animal Health.

LAWCS volunteers, under the guidance of founder Morris Darbo, have educated tens of thousands of children about safety around dogs using the Be a Tree program provided by the Canadian company Doggone Crazy. The president of Doggone Crazy, Joan Orr, said “Morris and his team are truly deserving of this award. Their selfless dedication to the protection of animals and children over the years, under very difficult conditions, is inspiring and humbling. It is wonderful to see them getting this respect and recognition on the world stage from leaders in world health promotion.”

LAWCS continues to provide basic animal health services to hundreds of pets yearly to improve their welfare and reduce the transmission of diseases including rabies. When the Ebola crisis hit, LAWCS changed gears and began providing bleach, soap, buckets and Ebola prevention education to remote communities accessible only by foot and motorbike. LAWCS also educates the community on compassionate animal care and treatment, and campaigns against eating the meat of dogs and other animals. With the help of the organization A Well Fed World, Morris and his team have provided nutritious vegetable based foods for hundreds of people and have initiated the planting of local gardens so this can be sustained.

If you’d like to support LAWCS in this important work, you can be sure that 100% of your donation goes directly to community programs. Please donate using the button at the top of the right hand column in this blog.

Report on Rabies Education and Prevention 2013

Oct 07

DURATION: AUGUST 1 TO SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

SPONSOR: GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR RABIES CONTROL

DATE OF SUBMISSION: OCTOBER 7, 2013

The Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society (LAWCS) is grateful to Global Alliance for Rabies Control for funding the printing of posters and flyers which were used to educate community people and school children in Voinjama District about rabies education and prevention.

World Rabies Day 2011

Oct 14

rabies12 The Liberia Animal Welfare Society is a local community based animal welfare organization registered with the government of Liberia in 2004 with the aim of promoting a peaceful society where both animals and humans can live in as companions.
In partnership with a non-profit organization- Doggone Safe, LAWS was able to celebration this year World Rabies Day. This year World Rabies Day celebration focused on dog bite prevention among children. Little is known about this deadly and neglected disease in Liberia. Educating school children about this disease and how to prevent it, helps to spread the information in various communities in Liberia.

LAWCS 2012 Report

Mar 22

MorrisDarboSamsonAnabwaniDSC03643 The Liberia Animal Welfare Society, (LAWS) is a non-governmental, non-religious animal welfare organisation established in 2001. It was legally registered and accredited with the government of the Republic of Liberia in 2004. LAWS is presently the only animal welfare organisation that is established and recognised in the country.
The overall aim of LAWS is to promote the conservation of nature by seeking the well being of all animals, thus fostering the ideals of the animal welfare movement in Liberia.

Animal welfare in Liberia is an important issue though usually belittled by other issues deemed as of more priority toward the development of post war Liberia. Animal welfare in Liberia is still a major challenge; cruelty to animals is still rampant. One major obstacle to animal welfare in Liberia is lack of humane education program, lack of resources to reach to larger communities, lack of train animal advocates and lack of supportive legislation.

Liberia Animal Welfare Society as a local animal welfare organisation in Liberia has been involved in promoting animal welfare in some communities in country through humane education program in few schools, veterinary services, campaigning against cruelty to animals.

Some of the achievements in 2010 by the Liberia Animal Welfare Society are as follows:

Fighting Rabies in Liberia

Mar 08

Theme of the day

The theme of the day was pretty straightforward, “Kick Rabies out of Liberia!”

The regional coordinator of LAWS, Morris Darbo, gave the keynote address, announcing that this was the very first time that World Rabies Day had ever been celebrated in Liberia, and that this marked the start of raising awareness in the way that is really needed to combat this disease. Rabies can only be “kicked out of Liberia” if everyone recognizes that it’s a disease of both animals and humans — and we can only have a healthy society when the health of both humans and all living creatures is important to all of us.

He expanded this to other zoonotic diseases, “Our pets are our relatives; they are part of our families,” calling on the government to include animal health concerns along with human health concerns. The government must provide rabies vaccines for dogs as part of community health care in Liberia. To defeat rabies, it is essential that a veterinary facility be provided with the rabies vaccines and that rabies education be included in the school curriculum.

He pointed out that in cases where authorities have responded to a rabies outbreak by killing the dogs that this has only made the problem worse, since dogs from outlying areas then move into the cities to fill the void left by the dogs who have been killed. The best defense against rabies is a stable population of dogs who have been vaccinated against rabies.

Rabies Vaccination Campaign 2010

Mar 08

LAWS7 The Liberia Animal Welfare Society Lofa Branch has been working with two organisations in administering free vaccines and other treatments for animals in some part of Lofa county. The below information will give you the detail about the work:
We worked with Vets Without Borders team from America in administering rabies vaccine to dogs and cats, and dewormer to cattle, goat and sheep. The vaccination provided by Vets without Borders team from America were given to animals in Foya District, Lofa County.This activity took place on April 15 and 16 2010.

The other free treatment was provided by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) This activity took place from April 18 to the 25, 2010. All the activities were done in very few communities in two districts. Foya and Voinjama districts. Lofa County has seven districts. We are appealing to other organisations to help the Liberia Animal Welfare Society to provide treatments for animals in this part of the world. Since 1985, there has been no facility to provide treatments and protect the welfare of animals in Liberia. This organisation needs fund, technical assistance and other resources to provide full protection and treatment for the welfare of animals in Liberia.

Sincerely yours,
Morris Darbo
Regional Coordinator
LAWS, Lofa branch