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.
The Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society (LAWCS) is a locally based animal welfare organization established in 2000 and legally registered with the government of Liberia in 2004. LAWCS renewed its legal status with the government of Liberia on January 3, 2012.
Dog bite has been a serious concern in Foya District since the end of the war in 2003. In 2008, there was a mass killing of dogs in Foya as means of curtailing the spread of rabies and addressing the issue of dog bite in the District. This method failed to eliminate the spread of rabies or even significantly reduce dog bite cases in the district. Foya District is bordering with Guinea and Sierra Leone. There has always been an influx of unvaccinated dogs from those countries. The presence of large number of strange dogs in the districts has also been a threat in controlling dog bite.
The Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society (LAWCS) is a locally based animal welfare organization established in 2000 and legally registered with the government of Liberia in 2004. LAWCS renewed its legal status with the government of Liberia on January 3, 2012.
The overall aim of LAWCS is to contribute to the conservation of nature by promoting the well being of animals, humans and the environment, thus fostering the ideals of the animal welfare movement and conservation of nature in Liberia.
The vision of LAWCS is to create a society where the welfare of all forms of nature matter.
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.
Liberia is home to over millions of companion animals. Animal Welfare in Liberia is an important issue though usually overshadowed by other issues deemed as of more priority toward the development of post war Liberia. Animal Welfare in Liberia is a major challenge; cruelty to animals is very rampant. 80% of Liberians raise pets. 75% of the numbers eat pets. The process use in killing these pets is un-ethical and inhumane. Dogs and cats are kill through beating and strangling. These acts are very rampant in all parts of the country.
One major obstacle to animal welfare in Liberia is lack of awareness education to discourage people from eating pets, lack of supportive legislations. The Liberia Animal Welfare Society is currently using educational program to discourage people from eating pets. LAWS is always calling the compassions of people and encouraging people to give up eating cat and dog meat voluntarily. However, we don’t believe eating the meat of cats and dogs can be totally eradicated automatically. But, we believe that encouraging people to say No to cat and dog meat is an influential animal protection campaign that will gradually ends dog and cat eating.
Key messages:
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:
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.
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
The Liberia Animal Welfare Society will educate community people and students about the important of spaying and neutering dogs and cats. In Liberia people are not educate on spay and neuter asa the result there are lot of stray dogs and cats because people are not able to feed all the dogs and cats they have. Some times, when there is an out break of rabies in a community, people will kill all the dogs as means of controlling the spread of rabies and controlling the Birth rate of dogs and cats. LAWS believes that if more awareness and education are done in various communities and in schools, people will prefer to spay/neuter their dogs and cats than killing them to control the birth rate. This is also help in reducing stray dogs and cats in the various communities. LAWS will engage in creating awareness in four schools in Voinjama City, namely: SDA School, Voinjama Public School, Child Welfare Community School and Newlife Community School. The activity will be done in Vezela, Voinjama City, Galam, Lawalazu, Sarkonedu and Selega. This event will be done in February, 2011.
Liberia Animal Welfare & Conservation Society is a Partner Organization of Animal-Kind International. Donations may be made to AKI, designated for LAWCS. 100% of all designated donations are sent to LAWCS. AKI is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in the US.