2005 Pakistan-India Earthquake

HSI's Sherry Grant is working with The Brooke Hospital for Animals to help equine and livestock affected by the earthquake. ©The HSUS

When a major earthquake struck parts of Pakistan and India on the early morning of October 8, tens of thousands of people lost their lives. Those who survived lost their homes and, perhaps more devastating, the means to care for their animals, whose survival can mean the difference between life and death for many of these people.

Many weeks after the disaster, as winter has set in for thousands of refugees along the Indian subcontinent, Humane Society International (HSI) is partnering with The Brooke Hospital for Animals (The Brooke) to provide relief for the working animals left homeless, along with their owners, in the wake of the devastating earthquake, which registered a 7.6 on the moment magnitude scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“The magnitude of the damage is hard to explain unless you’ve seen it,” says Sherry Grant, director of HSI Asia. “The whole town of Balakot has been leveled. Once you get outside of the town, you see the thousands of people dotting the countryside that have been affected. Their houses went off the sides of the mountain—it's just cascades of rocks, debris, and personal belongings.”

The Link Between Working Animals and Recovery

Immediately after the earthquake, Grant contacted The Brooke, whose mobile veterinarian teams set up field clinics in Pakistan and six other countries, working to improve the health and welfare of hundreds of thousands of working equines.

Grant engineered a partnership with The Brooke and will act as the spokesperson and liaison with the United Nations recovery efforts. With a $30,000 grant from HSI, The Brooke is providing relief for working equines in Pakistan as well as for milk-producing livestock—goats, sheep, calves, buffalo, and cows.

“These animals are the first line of economic recovery for these people,” says Grant. “They are already poor; if these animals die they will be poverty-stricken. A buffalo, for example, can cost $1,500 to $2,000 to replace so if their livestock die, they’ll never be able to afford to replace them.”

“So vital are working equines that many families have been using the rubble of their own homes to build winter shelters for them, rather than for themselves,” says Bill Swann, The Brooke’s head of international development. “The well-being of these animals will be of crucial importance as those devastated by the earthquake struggle to rebuild their lives.”

That is why The Brooke and HSI’s plan to provide shelter for working animals is probably going to fall under the auspices of the United Nation’s economic recovery programs.

The UN has organized a cluster of NGOs that meet to coordinate resources for aid, discussing which groups are doing what and where. The Brooke and HSI are part of this UN cluster. Other animal welfare NGOs, such as the World Society for the Protection of Animals, are also working in the area.

Working in tandem with the UN’s “Winter Race” efforts, which is trying to provide shelter for victims above the snow line at an elevation of 5,000 feet and up, The Brooke and HSI are proposing to provide corrugated sheeting materials that victims can use to build a roof for sheltering their animals.

“The idea is to work within the winterization scheme called ‘One Warm Room,’” explains Grant. “The human welfare NGOs are building one room enclosures for refugees out of corrugated sheet metal. They can use the materials we provide to add on a shelter for their animals, creating one sustainable sheltering solution.

“People will live in them for longer than one year,” adds Grant. “They will be able to add on to these rooms and, should anything else happen, they won’t be buried under rock and stone like they were after the quake first hit.”

Ninety shelters for working animals have already been built and are being enthusiastically received by livestock owners, according to Grant.

"The concept of building and providing the structure for the livestock in a 'do it yourself style' has been absolutely empowering," says Lt. Col Moeen of The Brooke.

A Long Road Ahead

In addition to attending to the immediate needs for sheltering these animals, Grant and The Brooke staff believe that their presence in the region and among the human welfare NGOs will bring attention and legitimacy to the vital role working animals play in economic recovery.

Grant also says that there are great opportunities for working animal welfare education and capacity building with regard to fodder management and shelter construction—tools vital not just now during recovery, but in the future to ensure the lasting ability of these refugees to rebuild what they have lost.

Updated Nov. 19, 2008.