Case studies

Malawi 

In August 2008 we supported the establishment of the Lilongwe Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (LSPCA), the first animal welfare organisation in Malawi. The LSPCA runs community veterinary clinics which provide vital care to animals in poor communities which previously had no access to veterinary care.

As well as basic veterinary care, all dogs are also vaccinated against rabies protecting the dog, its owner and the community against the disease. Recently the LSPCA has also started a popular spay/neuter programme to reduce the high number of unwanted dogs in the area.

The LSPCA also cares for farm animals with regular farm animal clinics across Lilongwe treating donkeys, cattle, goats and chickens. The vaccination programme for chickens protects them from Newcastle disease, which can kill a village’s entire chicken population, and the LSPCA vet is training local women to run this programme for their own community.

Have a look at the LSPCA’s website for more information and watch our film below of the clinic in action. You can also donate to the LSPCA's work here.

Zambia

We are working with the charity Awely to help communities in the South Luangwa National Park to find alternatives to the snares currently used to protect food crops. These snares cause great suffering to any animal caught in them, but the villagers are simply trying to protect their crops from being destroyed by elephants and monkeys.

The project is developing new ways to deter elephants from eating the crops and surprisingly one of the most successful and most simple methods uses hot chilli peppers.

Elephants hate chillies, so the farmers grow them, extract their oil and then use this to coat the fence around the crops. This has been very successful at keeping the elephants away and causes them no suffering.

The programme is expanding to include more farms and also to develop education materials for schools and the local community on animal welfare and wildlife conservation.