By Neil Trent
The tsunami that claimed nearly 150,000 human lives in South Asia did not discriminate. Just as individuals were going about their daily lives on that deadly morning, so too were the animals who enrich their world. The grazing cattle, the oxen leading plows, the dogs trotting on beaches—they all took a sudden and terrifying hit from that inexorable wall of water. Many never knew what hit them. Those who survived found themselves adrift in a broken world.
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We are witnessing the world come together as never before to help the affected areas recover in the wake of immense tragedy. Humane Society International has people on the ground in the region to help overwhelmed communities care for creatures who are essential to their livelihoods and overall well-being.
HSI is determined to see that efforts to rebuild lives include provisions for all impacted animals. We by no means wish to minimize the horrific human toll, or suggest there are competing interests, especially at a time when disease, hunger, and grief loom so ominously. We believe that caring for people and the animals who sustain them are part of the same broad recovery process. Indeed, it is imperative to provide succor to all creatures swept up in the disaster—for economic and public health concerns, surely, but also for less pragmatic reasons. Helping all animals, human and non-human alike, reminds us of our better natures, even as mother nature reminds us that our values are the only constants in this wildly unpredictable world.
In hard-hit Aceh province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, small-scale agriculture is a mainstay of the local economy. Without their cattle, goats and poultry, and their oxen and water buffalo to work the fields, many subsistence farmers would simply cease to subsist. For this reason, they go to incredible lengths to save their animals.
Their plight reminds me of scenes in the former Yugoslavia during the height of the war. I recall peasants fleeing for their lives down mountain roads with a chicken under one arm and a cow or goat in tow. I was told that the local word for livestock—blago—also means “treasure.” I visited the home of one peasant farmer outside Sarajevo who kept his expecting cow in his kitchen to protect her from Serbian attacks. On the day she gave birth, villagers paused from the horror to come by and toast to the new life. I also remember the lump that formed in my throat as I watched Bosnian children, each a refugee, express their grief through their drawings, many of which depicted an empty dog kennel or a collar without an animal.
Bringing Out the Best in Us
Tragedy has a way of calling out the noblest parts of human nature. While still reeling from the tsunami, people in Thailand became captivated by a life-and-death drama involving a rare dolphin. A female had been carried a half mile inland by the surging sea and deposited into a makeshift lagoon where she faced certain death as the water quickly became contaminated. That’s when dozens of homegrown and foreign volunteers, including HSI Asia Director Sherry Grant, sprang into action and launched a Herculean rescue effort that grew to include Thailand’s top environmental official. They toiled under stress for three days, but finally succeeded in saving the dolphin. The episode provided consolation to a beleaguered people desperate for good news.
HSI is currently conducting needs assessments in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, three of the hardest-hit countries. (India’s animal welfare infrastructure is more advanced, prompting HSI to concentrate our resources on these other areas.) In each locale, we are working with local groups to determine the scope of the resources required, be they financial, veterinary, food, water or anything else. In agrarian Aceh province, farm animals whose owners were killed are roaming decimated fields with nothing to consume but polluted water. We are focusing our immediate efforts on helping to procure feed and clean water. Down the road, we would like to work with our partners in Indonesia’s agricultural sector to teach essential skills to those farming families which lost their primary breadwinner in the catastrophe.
In Thailand and Sri Lanka, dogs are the first order of concern. The death and destruction wrought by the tsunami have left a gaping vacuum for canine survivors. Shelters are overwhelmed, leaving orphaned animals to roam the streets. Hungry dogs tend to become aggressive. Packs of starving, displaced animals—some rabid—pose a significant health risk for human populations already burdened with nightmares enough. To prevent this problem from compounding, HSI is working with local groups and the authorities in both countries to establish feed centers and provide rabies vaccines for stray dogs.
These steps mark only the beginning. HSI is committed over the long haul to helping the struggling people provide for their animals’ needs. The return of a healthy animal population heralds the renewal of the ravaged communities.
Animals figure prominently in the stories of heroism and survival unfolding in the devastated areas. From Thailand, we hear how elephants used for rides on the beach sensed the oncoming wave before anyone else and fled for higher ground, carrying tourists to safety. In India, one very grateful mother rejoiced that the family dog pulled her 7-year-old son out of the way of the oncoming juggernaut. In the brutal aftermath, survivors continue to pull together. When disaster strikes all creation is one.
