PRES: Nearly one billion of the world's poorest people depend on the animals they own to stay alive. Chelsea Moore found out just how important animals are to many people.
Moore: The UN has been protecting people since it was founded. Now the World Society for the Protection of Animals wants the organization to extend that assistance to animals. WSPA's Mike Baker told journalists at the UN that animal welfare is not an unaffordable luxury.
Baker: It is an essential part of solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing us today and in particular to sustainable development. We hope that the message we bring will help influence change in the future. Because so far animal welfare has unfortunately been seen as an unnecessary luxury rather than something integral and I think that has been damaging and holding back sustainable development more widely.
Moore: In Pakistan following the 2005 earthquake, Baker found that one of the most urgent needs of the people was to have their animals cared for because the animals were often the only things of value people had left. Humanitarian aid organizations working in the area welcomed the assistance of WSPA as the importance of animal welfare became increasingly clearer.
Baker: Tents were being distributed for them and their families only for them to find that the people themselves were putting their animals inside these tents and the reason for that was that the meat or milk provided by those animals could have been key to keeping those families alive throughout the winter, and also if the animals survived it have them something of value with which to rebuild their lives. So we went out there. We provided shelters, veterinary back up and we made a big difference not just to the animals but to the shattered lives of the people, and the two go hand in hand.
Moore: Beyond incorporating animal protection into disaster response, WSPA believes the welfare of animals can also go hand in hand with sustainable business practices. Vinod Kapur, Founder and Chairman of Keggfarms in India finds scaling up the animal and environmentally friendly poultry practices of rural households into business models, can provide disadvantaged families with poultry stock that thrive in village environments, and in turn provide a source of food and income for the families.
Kapur: An approach that involves importing village producer's skills, knowledge and ability that are not readily within their reach, or calls for the adoption of practices that they cannot in practical terms understand or financially afford, it is not likely to achieve significant or lasting results. In other words, don't try to change the villages so that poultry would happen, change your poultry to make it happen and work in the villages.
For UN Radio, I'm Chelsea Moore
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