Taking the lead to end animal cruelty

Heather in Sichuan after the earthquake

Dr Heather Bacon was one of the lucky ones. When the earthquake struck she was a mere 20 miles from its epicentre, hard at work treating animals rescued from a fate which could potentially have meant an even more painful death than anything that natural catastrophe could inflict upon them.

Of course, her thoughts were immediately with those human victims, many desperately poor with few possessions and hundreds of vulnerable schoolchildren trapped beneath shoddily constructed school buildings, each caught unaware and unprotected in one of China's worst quakes.

Heather was working at Animals Asia's Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, tending to creatures with life- threatening injuries caused not by nature's cruelty but man's, when the 2008 quake struck Sichuan province.A vet with years of hands-on experience, she was now called upon to come to her fellow man's aide.

"We were lucky, there was minimal damage to our buildings, but there were local schools that had collapsed and people were buried underneath," she recalls. "We went out straight away to help. We had a well-stocked medical supply, not all appropriate for human use, but we did have bandages, disinfectant, antiseptics and painkillers."

She found injured people being treated at the side of the street, sobbing mothers seeking lost children, daughters desperately trying to help trapped parents. In the immediate aftermath, she helped form the front line of medical help, doing all she could until what she calls "the experts" arrived.

But while the human scale of the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake is staggering - nearly 70,000 were confirmed dead, around 400,000 were injured - it also took a devastating toll on animals. From giant pandas to pet dogs and cats, creatures of all kinds were in dire need of expert help.

As it turned out, Heather's task - one which would ultimately alter her impression of her Chinese hosts for good - was only just beginning.

It's three years this month since that devastating tremor, and Heather is now on much more solid ground at her base within a new 2 million centre at Edinburgh University's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education is a world away from China, where, until January, Heather was treating bears with horrific injuries caused by attempts to "milk" bile from their gall bladders for use in Chinese remedies. Yet it's from there that Heather will help spearhead the struggle to end needless suffering of creatures like them throughout Asia and beyond.

Launched last week, the centre aims to forge links with countries where animal welfare, abuse laws and veterinary care could be drastically improved. As well as providing trainee vets on the other side of the globe with Edinburgh-grown expertise, the centre will also endeavour to push up standards of treatment to help alleviate animal suffering.

At its core is a determination to change deep-set, often historical attitudes to animal welfare - the kinds that see dogs sold for food, cats skinned for their fur and meat, bears intensely farmed for their gall bladder bile and farm and circus animals suffering needlessly from lack of veterinary knowledge and skill.

"China is often portrayed quite negatively in terms of animal welfare and cruelty," says Heather, whose role at the centre as veterinary education and outreach manager is funded by Animals Asia.

"On one hand China is seen as very progressive, the world's fastest developing country, the next superpower. But in human rights and animal welfare, there is still a lot of work to be done."

She saw the misery man can inflict on animals during her three-year spell at the Bear Rescue Centre at Chengdu. Asiatic moon bears - named after the cream-coloured crescent moon patch on their chest - were often so badly injured that they had to be destroyed.

She knew, too, that dog and cat meat regularly appeared on restaurant menus, that performing animals in Chinese zoos, circuses and safari parks were often abused and that local vets - while keen to advance their knowledge - struggled with outdated teaching methods and treatments.

Yet it was that fateful quake that opened her eyes to another facet of the Chinese relationship with their animals - one of deep empathy and care.

"Afterwards I met people in refugee camps who couldn't bring their dogs with them because of concerns for disease," she recalls. "They were going back to condemned buildings, houses that were falling down, to feed their dogs and cats.

"They risked their own lives to feed their pets. That speaks volumes about the level of empathy the ordinary Chinese people feel with their animals."

As fears grew that once loved family pets could catch and spread rabies, the Chinese authorities announced plans for a dog cull. Every animal, much loved pet or not, would be slaughtered, probably callously beaten to death.

Confronted with what they saw as unnecessary cruelty, Animals Asia persuaded the authorities to allow Heather and her colleagues to catch and vaccinate dogs instead.

They then set up a pet fostering scheme to care for animals for a year while earthquake victims tried to rebuild broken lives. "That gave peace of mind to people who had lost everything. It sounds like a very small thing but it was very much appreciated," says Heather.

Now she hopes to build on that affection Chinese and other cultures have for animals by helping to drive up veterinary standards through strong links between the Dick school and their own universities. As standards of care for animals improve, tighter laws and legislation should follow. "There is huge scope for animal welfare and vet education, not just in China but in India and throughout Asia," she concludes. "What happened following the earthquake showed me that, as individuals, the Chinese are just like us - they want their homes, their health and their families to be safe and their pets to be looked after."

Dr Heather Bacon and Animals Asia founder Jill Robertson, MBE, will deliver a talk on Animals Asia's work in China at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies on June 22, followed by a fundraising auction. Tickets cost 15 from 01579 347148 or [email protected]

NATURE LOVERS

THE Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE) opened last Thursday.

Launched using funds from the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust, its aim is to work with universities and governments across the world to improve veterinary standards and introduce tighter regulations for animal welfare.

The Geneva-based trust was set up in 1989 by nature lover Jeanne Marchig in memory of her late husband, artist Giannino Marchig.

Dr Heather Bacon and centre director Professor Natalie Waran will work with veterinary professionals and scientists to strengthen education on animal welfare issues. The centre will also become involved in the political debate on animal welfare and protection issues.

Mrs Marchig said: "This is a very exciting initiative in which animal welfare will play an integral role in veterinary education.

"Vets are at the core of safeguarding animal welfare and they will be provided with the skills necessary to enable their voices to be heard in order to ensure that animals across the world are free from distress, suffering and hunger."