As an animal welfare charity that has been operating for over 160 years, Battersea’s mission is to be ‘here for every dog and cat’. This extends far beyond the animals that Battersea takes in at their three centres.
Through the charity’s Global Programmes strategy, Battersea works with rescues and organisations across the UK and overseas to help make the world a better place for dogs and cats.
Battersea is highlighting the vital collaborative work being done around the world to eliminate this deadly disease, including in Sri Lanka, South Africa and Nepal. With rabies posing a threat to people and animals in over 150 countries, animal welfare organisations are working tirelessly towards a shared goal of eradicating rabies by 2030.
The Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) recently unveiled a groundbreaking new project, the Communities Against Rabies initiative, which is being supported with funding through a Battersea Grant. The initiative will empower individuals and groups within local communities to tackle the spread of rabies at a grassroots level and prevent thousands of dogs from being at risk of infection.
Professor Louis Nel, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, said: “While there has been significant progress in recent years, a lack of coordination, reliable data, and investment has prevented the ‘last mile’ of rabies elimination, particularly at the local level. The Communities Against Rabies initiative addresses these historic shortcomings by pioneering a new global grassroots movement, equipping rabies-affected communities with the coordination, expertise, and tools needed to achieve rabies elimination.”
Simona Zito, Battersea’s Grants & Programmes Manager, said; “At Battersea our mission is to help improve the lives of dogs and cats, not just at our centres, but also across the UK and overseas. We’re proud to work with a number of rescues and organisations around the world who share our goal of affecting real, meaningful change to the welfare of animals.
“While rabies is thankfully not a major problem in the UK, it sadly still affects people and animals in many other countries, and we all need to play our part to eradicate this disease. That’s why we’re supporting the Global Alliance for Rabies Control with a new Communities Against Rabies initiative. Only by working together with communities directly impacted by the disease, do we stand a real chance of eliminating rabies once and for all.”
Communities Against Rabies includes providing training for ‘Dog Health Champions’, dedicated individuals working on the ground and using their skills to support their community by providing rabies vaccinations, raising awareness of the issue, monitoring local dog health and rabies risks, and more. The initiative also includes recognising ‘Rabies Centers of Excellence’, who will be given resources and funding to help them support the work of the ‘Dog Health Champions’ and other organisations fighting rabies in local areas; and developing a ‘Partners for Community Dog Health’ programme to connect Centers with one another and increase collaboration on a local and national level.
Since the initiative began last month, two Rabies Centers of Excellence have already been certified; WECare Worldwide in Sri Lanka, and Animal Relief for Rural Communities (ARRC) in South Africa.
The team at WECare have been working on the ground to prevent the spread of rabies in Sri Lanka, vaccinating pets, strays and street dogs to protect them against the disease, including eighteen-month-old Lassie and seven-week-old Eve. Lassie is a much-loved pet who lives with her four humans, four dogs and two cats in a rural part of Sri Lanka. The whole household has now been vaccinated against rabies, which was then recorded on the GARC rabies surveillance app. A member of the WECare team said; “The family were super grateful and treated us to soft drinks and strawberry wafers afterwards!”
Meanwhile tiny Eve was dumped in a box outside WECare’s hospital and was suffering from a severe skin disease. As well as treating her skin problems, the WECare team were able to give her a rabies vaccination, despite being only seven weeks old. This preventative care so early in life will give her the best possible chance of a bright future living in a rabies endemic country.
Over in Limpopo, South Africa, ARRC is carrying out crucial rabies vaccination and education work to help people and animals in the community. In that part of the country, there is no formal veterinary support for rabies prevention and public health service for humans are massively under resourced, meaning organisations like ARRC and the Communities Against Rabies initiative are needed to help tackle the disease. Speaking about their work, Dr Lani Anagnostou said “The only reliable way to contribute to decreasing or eliminating rabies in our part of South Africa is by vaccinating dogs.”
To find out more information about Battersea’s Global Programmes work, visit the Battersea website.
