From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2011:
Thai flood rescuers wonder "Where were the global animal charities?"
BANGKOK--"I think we have shown that a group of dedicated local organizations can be far more effective [than international organizations] in dealing with disasters," e-mailed Soi Dog Foundation president John Dalley in mid-November 2011, as two months of flooding across much of Thailand subsided. "It would have been nice to have been given some aid. Many of us expected the large international charities to take the lead and were disappointed, to put it mildly," Dalley continued. "I exclude Humane Society International from this comment," Dalley added, since an HSI team from India did help the local coalition, after several days of miscommunication.
But Dalley, Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand founder Edwin Wiek, and less outspoken representatives of other local rescue groups--most of them veterans of the rescue effort after the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami--for several weeks did not even damn with faint praise the responses of the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Among the first into the field as the waters rose in northern tributaries to the major rivers that converge at Bangkok was Save Elephant Foundation founder Sangduen "Lek" Chailert. The Save Elephant Foundation Nature Park in Chiang Mai, 435 miles northwest of Bangkok, shelters 24 ex-working elephants rescued from various abusive situations. The Elephant Nature Park escaped damage, Chailert said, because "Our strong river wall saved us and kept us safe."
But on October 9, 2011, Chailert posted, "I saw the people in Nakorn Sawan province run from flooding, many of them in such panic that they left their animals behind. They wanted to take their pets with them, but space on government boats was scarce and the animals were not allowed. I saw thousands of pigs floating in the flood. I was sick to see the dogs, cats, cows, buffaloes and others dead," including reportedly more than a million chickens. "We decided to bring our team to help the animals as much as we could," Chailert said. "We sent two trucks carrying 13 tons of bananas and watermelons to the elephants in Ayutthaya," 17 of whom were stranded on a small island for two months. Seventy-three other elephants escaped, but the younger and smaller elephants were unable to push through the deep water and strong current.
"We managed to bring 10 tons of human and animal food and medicine to Nakon Sawan," Chailert continued, "and then helped to move 300 dogs from a flooded shelter in Nontaburi, just upstream from Bangkok."
As the water roared south, Dalley, Wiek, and others organized their disaster response coalition and began appealing for international aid. The Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand, as the strongest organization in the Bangkok area, was designated to coordinate field operations. The Soi Dog Foundation, out of harm's way at Phuket, was designated to handle logistics and communications. Dalley first sought help from WSPA and IFAW on October 18, 2011, but received response only from their automated reply systems.
On October 21, however, WSPA head of disaster management James Sawyer blogged that two WSPA teams had begun "to assess the situation. The first team worked with Wildlife Friends of Thailand at the Emergency Operations Centre in Ayutthaya," Sawyer said. "We assisted with setting up a temporary shelter that is expected to hold 100 animals for the next two to three weeks," Sawyer continued. "We also were also able to assist with the rescue of eight dogs, three puppies, two cats and nine kittens."
A day later Sawyer added, "We bought 1.5 metric tons of pet food, which will be split into bags of five kilograms each and marked with stickers so that the bags can be easily identified as pet food. This entire consignment of food will be delivered to the vet facility at the Chulalonkorn University. In Ayutthaya, Wildlife Friends of Thailand will receive half a metric ton of animal food at the Petchaburi Quarantine Center, where they have set up a temporary animal shelter. They have reportedly rescued 80 animals today alone."
Sawyer blogged on October 24 that all had been done according to plan. Posted Wiek in response, "Mr Sawyer, many people have e-mailed you asking when or if WSPA will help the animals in Thailand, but until today you refuse to reply or act. Your Disaster Assessment Response Team joined a boat trip with us," Wiek acknowledged, "but did nothing. When will you start doing something?"
Wiek's comment was deleted.
Said Sawyer on October 26, "There were a few comments here made by members of our partner organisations. These comments have now been removed, as we are continuing the conversation in a private space."
On that day, eight days after Dalley first sought help, WSPA supporter services administrator Julie Therese wrote to Dalley, "Thank you for your e-mail to WSPA dated 18th October. I am so sorry for the delay in responding to you. We have been receiving a large number of enquiries lately and are trying our best to get through them as quickly as possible. I have forwarded your enquiry to a colleague of mine who should be able to respond to you directly. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us again."
Exasperated, Dalley and Wiek on October 27 resigned the Soi Dog and Wildlife Friends status as WSPA member societies. "I'm glad they finally spoke up," said Treat with Responsibility & Empathy all Animals in Thailand founder Margot Homburg.
Wrote Wiek in his resignation statement, "WFFT is extremely disappointed by the refusal to financially support any organization helping in the flooding, and the very slow response. WSPA has a regional office in Bangkok with dozens of staff," Wiek noted, "and claims to have an international disaster relief team stationed in Bangkok, led by Ian Dacre, who said he would only fund us if we would rent one of our boats to them for their own project to bring food out with the livestock department."
"Ill-informed"
Responded WSPA director general Mike Baker to ANIMAL PEOPLE, via spokesperson Miranda Thompson, "I am very disappointed by the reaction of those groups criticising our efforts," in what Baker termed "ill-informed briefings."
Said an attached prepared statement, "In partnership with the Thai government and local groups such as WFFT, WSPA rapidly deployed its Disaster Assessment and Response Team. In partnership with these groups WSPA committed an initial $50,000 from its emergency fund focusing on companion animals and their immediate needs of feed, delivering many metric tons of feed already."
"The help WSPA is now referring to," Wiek told ANIMAL PEOPLE, "was handing over cages worth about $900 and food worth approximately $600--about 3% of the total budget they claim to have reserved here. A sad detail of the handing over of cages," Wiek added, was that going to get them, as instructed by WSPA, cost his team an entire day that ended at 10 p.m., because when they arrived, "We were told by a WSPA volunteer that they needed 4-5 hours to unpack all the cages to attach stickers saying 'sponsored by WSPA' and 'donated by WSPA.'"
Dacre of WSPA meanwhile "asked to rent or use our first boat at Ayutthaya for a day to show the director of an international law firm in Bangkok around," Wiek said. "This case is not related to the [earlier] offer to rent our second boat for livestock feed delivery. Why should I give up a boat for this for a whole day that is needed to rescue animals' lives? What are the priorities here?" Wiek asked, signing his e-mail "From a very ill-informed person."
Wildlife Friends of Thailand was by then housing 128 dogs and 36 cats, with space prepared for another 180 dogs and 50 cats. "All animals have been identified, photos taken, and marked for release back at exactly the same place where we found them," Wiek said. "If possible," Wiek added, "we would like to spay as many dogs and cats as possible before returning them. A fully equipped surgery room is available at our centre. Hope we can find soon some vets to help out."
Acknowledging the complaints from Wiek, Dalley, et al, without naming them, Sawyer posted on October 30 that "WSPA has been helping animals affected by the flooding in Thailand since early September, when our team went to Phichit Province," about halfway between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, "and delivered emergency food to sustain over 2,000 cattle. We have since delivered 25 metric tons of emergency pet food to three different areas in Central Thailand," Sawyer said, "which should help sustain 6,000 animals for around six weeks, and are expecting to deliver another five metric tons in the coming days. We have also distributed 75 cages for local groups to use in their emergency rescues and as temporary shelters. We are continuing to work in close coordination with the Department of Livestock Development, Thailand Red Cross Society, the Thai Vet Network and the Department of Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation in Thailand. Unfortunately," Sawyer finished, "two local organizations have been trying to solicit funds from our supporters by posting comments on our animals in disaster blog. We have had to delete a couple of these comments, as we cannot be accountable for any funds directed by our supporters to these other organizations. WSPA will continue to respond directly to all groups making requests for assistance."
Responded Dalley, "Nobody from the Soi Dog Foundation posted direct requests for funding on their pages."
ANIMAL PEOPLE found no independent reportage about the WSPA work in Phichit, and no mention of it on the WSPA "Animals in Disasters" blog for September 2011, but Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong of The Nation newspaper in Bangkok reported on September 15, 2011 that WSPA had "helped creatures caught in the flooding of Nghe An, one of 13 Vietnamese provinces hammered by Tropical Storm Haima."
This was at about the same latitude as Phichit, but well to the east, on the far side of Laos.
"The group acted because Nghe An has 1.6 million head of domesticated livestock. The flood killed seven people and 3,500 animals," Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong wrote, mentioning that WSPA "dispersed more than 85,000 kilograms of feed meal and 583 canvas sheets for shielding animals against the cold," at cost of about $71,000.
IFAW responded at last to Dalley's October 18 request for help on November 2.
"WSPA is a great organization," e-mailed Tracy Weeks of IFAW Supporter Relations to Dalley, "and we work with them often. Generally if they have a presence somewhere, we await their request for help, and vice versa...That said, we have now received some requests and are working to see which are legitimate and where we can best help the most animals. I'll keep you posted."
As of November 27, two IFAW representatives had visited Wildlife Friends, and had promised to send $4,000, Wiek told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Wiek by November 3 had "about 280 pets and one monkey under our care," he said. "We are trying to get organized and set up properly," Wiek said, "but as the pets keep on coming," delivered by private indiv-iduals and at least five other rescue organizations, "we have a really hard time to cope. The last three days dogs and cats arrived at 4:30 a.m., 2:00 a.m., and last night, midnight and 3:00 a.m.," Wiek noted, "so we are not only having tough days' work, but also sleepless nights."
Among them, the local animal charities had 800 dogs in care within another 24 hours, 330 of them at Wildlife Friends. Wildlife Friends took in 670 more animals during the next week. Soi Dog and Wildlife Friends donor Peter Collins tried to intercede with WSPA to obtain some dog food, as did Soi Dog U.S. representative Leonard Coyne. That resulted in a six-day electronic runaround, eventually forwarded to ANIMAL PEOPLE--and no food. Said WSPA supporter services administrator Julie Therese on November 15, "Our Disaster Management team have informed me that our trucks deliver pet food mainly to the Department of Livestock Development and some to Thai Vet Network and Thai Red Cross."
Growled Dalley, "There is no organization called the Thai Veterinary Network. The Thai Red Cross is concerned with humans, not animals. The principle veterinary authority in Thailand is the Thai Veterinary Medical Association, whose president I have had two meetings with in the past week. They are offering full cooperation with us, and even donated 20 life jackets for our volunteers. At no time in our discussions did she mention WSPA," Dalley said, "though I did not ask."
"The Soi Dog Foundation," Dalley added, "is supporting our own volunteers and working with other groups including Wildlife Friends, the Elephant Nature Foundation, Soi Cats & Dogs, TREAT Bangkok, SOS Thailand, and many other local groups, as well as coordinating international veterinary aid from Humane Society International, World Vets USA, NETAP Switzerland, the Worldwide Veterinary Association, Kinship Circle, and others. All of these groups are rescuing abandoned pets and stray dogs and cats. Throughout the campaign we have consistently publicized all the other groups involved and continue to do so. All monies raised directly for the flood appeal will be used for this purpose and the aftermath.
"Soi Dog Foundation has had a very successful fundraising campaign," Dalley acknowledged, "although as with all disaster appeals the response tends to be short-lived and donations are now falling off rapidly. Also, as with all such campaigns, disaster relief donations tend to severely impact donations going to our regular programs."
Looking ahead, Dalley recommended "for us all to meet and put into place a procedure for how to deal with future possible disasters." --Merritt Clifton
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Merritt Clifton
Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236
Telephone: 360-579-2505
Cell: 360-969-0450
Fax: 360-579-2575
E-mail: anmlpepl@whidbey.com
Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org
