Animal Health

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.

Tackling the plight of dogs through education and care in Liberia

Sep 29

Liberia is a poor post war country in western Africa, with many problems including the recent Ebola crisis that killed over 4,000 people, high illiteracy rate, lack of electricity, high unemployment rate, and other problems that don’t involve animals or their welfare. The problems with animals, however, do exist.

People have dogs and don’t know how to care for them, keeping them in horrendous conditions that are far below what is considered humane. Dogs are left to roam around in search of food, eating leftover food on the ground exposing them to diseases and parasites. Most people provide no veterinary care or treatment when their dogs are sick or injured. Some people also eat dog meat.

In order to help these lovely companion animals in a population that abuses them, we educate their owners and work with their owners to improve the human-animal relationship. That`s exactly what LAWCS does. LAWCS provides responsible dog ownership education for dog owners, runs an anti-dog meat eating campaign, provides free veterinary care and treatment. LAWCS also provides a community outreach feeding program to give a healthy alternative to eating the meat of dogs and other .

We believe that cruelty to animals is often caused unintentionally, but animals suffer as a result of lack of knowledge and information. That is why we put so much emphasis on education and information about animals along with practical care and assistance for animals. To love animals also means to know them well.

Please consider making a small donation to help our work in Liberia. All funds go directly towards our programs.

LAWCS Annual Report 2015

Jan 13

LAWCS` Humane Education Program In Liberia
Campaign Against Pet Eating/Responsible Dog Ownership
Vegan Outreach Program/Plant Based Diets for School Children
LAWCS` Basic Animal Healthcare Program
The Abandoned Chimpanzees in Liberia
Conclusion

LAWCS` Humane Education Program In Liberia

Promoting care, compassion, and respect for all animals is fundamental to preventing animal cruelty. An active step towards improving permanent conditions for all animals is humane education.

With humane education, LAWCS is making a tremendous difference in the lives of many animals and people. Currently, LAWCS is the only registered animal welfare organization in Liberia that has been providing humane education to the public. The need for education on animal welfare in Liberia is pertinent. LAWCS believes that education is key to ending animal cruelty and creating a just and caring society where animal and human welfare matter. Education is a critical element in preparing a generation of animal lovers, increasing community responsiveness to animal welfare issues. Education also helps to tackle the inhumane treatment of animals at abattoirs, educate the general population on animal welfare, and to change attitudes and practices towards humane treatment of animals. With education, we are reducing the number of children harmed by dogs through our dog bite prevention program.

Anti-Pet Eating Campaign Report – Sept 2015

Sep 30

Dogs have been our friends and trusty helpers for thousands of years. They have shared our burdens, brought us joy, protected us from dangers, guarded our properties, and showed us the meaning of friendship. Dogs show us unconditional love. They do not care what we look like, whether we are rich or poor, whether we are educated or uneducated; our dogs greet us with unconditional love. These lovely animals do all of these fascinating things for us, but many people in our society pay them back with cruelty.

LAWCS Conference Presentation

Jan 25

Lawcs presentation at the conference from MorrisDarbo

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:

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