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Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
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Reginans work with goat project April 7, 2014 By Heather Polischuk, The Starphoenix While in Canada, goats aren't exactly held in high reverence, the unassuming creatures are helping to completely turn people's lives around in Uganda. Since 2009, Regina veterinarian Laura McDonald has taken part most years in a joint effort between Veterinarians Without Borders (VWB) and the Foundation for AIDS Orphaned Children to improve people's lives in the African country, through the use of goats as livestock. In May, McDonald (who works at the Animal Clinic of Regina), along with volunteer Danielle Gauthier Kratz and two veterinary students, will leave Regina for Uganda to lend a hand and check in with families and communities who have benefited in the past. While VWB cares for the health of animals in struggling parts of the world, the organization also, by extension, helps improve vulnerable people's economic, health and educational situation. The Uganda goat program, for instance, provides recipients - many of them women struggling to provide for their families - with two goats that can be sold to earn money, provide fecal matter to aid in growing food, and to be used for milk and food as needed. As the goats reproduce, offspring are passed along to other families in the community. "It's a way to have (communities) be self-sufficient and our goal is always to work our way out of the project so that they can be sufficient on their own," McDonald said. "We still have a long way to get there, but over the years since 2009 - since I started going - I've seen a tremendous improvement in women's lives and in families' lives, and they've gone from not being able to have enough food to feed their children to now having their children go to school, owning a house and property, and some of them have even got involved in the local political system and are now leaders for their community. And to be honest, a lot of that wouldn't have happened without their involvement in the goat project." The program also provides basic veterinary training for locals in Uganda so they can earn an income while helping keep livestock healthy when their Canadian partners return home. "I like the idea of helping not only the animals - because we are going to be doing other work as well with the people there - but I like the importance of the mindset of healthy animals, healthy people, healthy planet, so it's all encompassing to make everybody's life better," said Gauthier Kratz, a first-time visitor to Uganda. Steven Kruzeniski, also a vet at the Animal Clinic of Regina, went to Uganda in 2012 to take part in the program and came back enthusiastic about what has been and can be accomplished. "What really got me hooked was being able to utilize that (veterinary) knowledge that we don't always get a chance to, pretty basic information, things like biosecurity, basic health information that we can utilize to help the animals as well as the people in those situations," he said. McDonald pointed out that money raised in Canada - including at an April 26 fundraiser being held at the Victoria Avenue location of Metro Pet Market - goes directly to those who need it, enabling the purchase of goats and veterinary supplies and the transportation of community members in Uganda to and from training, among other uses. Tickets for the fundraiser - which will include African-inspired food, drinks and entertainment as well as a silent auction and an opportunity to adopt a goat for a family - can be purchased for $25 from Gauthier Kratz at pinkpoodlegrooming@sasktel.net or by phone at 306-570-2880. Carmina Gooch wrote to the newspapers. Her letter: I read with dismay Reginans work with goat project, in which two organizations believe they are helping improve the lives of people in Uganda by exploiting goats as mere commodities. Besides the unethical practice of raising and killing animals for gustatory pleasure, there are the tremendous costs to the environment and to our health. Due to more awareness, the demand for animal products is declining or stagnating in developed countries like Canada and the US. (Food Industry Trends 2014) In 2010, the UN Environment Program's International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management stated that a global shift toward a vegan diet is critical for mitigating global hunger and the worst impacts of climate change. With so many viable and alternate agricultural development projects to feed the world, there is no reason to provide goats or any other animal to Ugandan families. VEGFAM is one program that is educating and “feeding the hungry without exploiting animals.” That is the way forward. "If we have faith, it is life in general that we hold precious. Because of this reverence for life we will strive to the utmost to save an individual life, including in that category an animal life. If we lose the sense that all life is precious we surrender our humanity, with the inevitable result that our own lives become empty and devoid of meaning." From Depression and the Body by Alexander Lowen, M.D. Compassion, respect, and justice for those with no voice November 26, 2015 Christmas gift ideas: Why not give a goat? Gooch writes to CTV January 19, 2013 Donating a goat helps no one — least of all the goat |