World Animal Protection (WAP), an animal welfare organization, has launched a free online course for livestock farmers, animal health practitioners, veterinary officers, and paraveterinary workers. They will be taught how to protect their livestock during disasters.
The program dubbed PrepVet, which is a universal standardized training course, is ideal for equipping animal health practitioners, veterinary officers, paraveterinary workers and livestock farmers with skills on handling fast onset disasters including storms, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Dr. Judy Kimaru, WAP’s disaster manager for Africa, said the course seeks to enable risk management and reduction, including understanding the factors that lead to emergencies and being prepared for them, to minimize animal losses.
“Many people living in risk-prone areas rely on animals for their livelihoods and survival. Therefore, protection of animals in disasters is a key focus of the strategies in this course… Although many hazards are inevitable, the vulnerability of communities can be reduced,” said Dr Kimaru.
World Animal Protection, formerly The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is an international non-profit animal welfare organization that has been in operation for over 30 years. The charity describes its vision as: A world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty has ended.
The organization helps companies and farmers adopt farming methods without close confinement of animals, as these cause pain and distress. They also help create conditions where animals are more able to express their natural behaviors, and move freely, which reduces the need for painful practices like tail docking (which is used to stop crowded pigs attacking each other in intensive farms).
The charity has regional hubs in: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America, and offices in 14 countries. Its headquarters is in London.
