IFAW's Animal Rescue Blog

IFAW's Ian Robinson on Releasing Water Buffalo Back into the Wild

Ian Robinson is the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Emergency Relief program director, he recently spent four weeks in India working with our partner organizations and visiting projects…

The mighty Brahmaputra river flows down from the Himalayas and across the breadth of Assam, before entering Bangladesh and emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The heavy monsoon rains bring floods – both a blessing and a curse. Silt washed from the soils of the high Himalayas brings great fertility to the floodplain each year, which not only supports the rice paddies of the human population, but a great wealth of natural flora and fauna, making this area a biodiversity hot spot.

When the floods run high, they drive both people and animals from their homes, seeking the safety of higher ground. On this journey many animals become displaced as they run a gauntlet of human development that surrounds each National Park in the region, and commonly infants get separated from their mothers. Which is how IFAW ended up with two wild buffalo calves to rear, rehabilitate and return to the wild in the first place...

The National Park of Dibru – Sikova is an island entirely surrounded by the Brahmaputra river, an ideal habitat for water loving wild buffalo. Hand reared at our rescue center on the outskirts of Kaziranga National Park, these two young buffalo were transferred a year ago to a large electric fenced release paddock on the island. This move was a feat in itself, with over a hundred people involved in carrying the buffalo, each in a wooden crate supported on long bamboo poles – teams of 20 – 30 people took it in turns to carry the crates the 3km from the boat to the release paddock.

IFAW Canada: Northern Dogs Veterinary Effort - Montreal Pups

This post was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Jan Hannah, working from remote Cree communities, in the James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.

I received a call from a woman in one of the communities that IFAW’s Northern Dogs Project visits each spring. Over a number of weeks she had managed to take in six puppies –not littermates; just picked up one by one. Her question to me… could IFAW help her rehome them if she could get them as far as Montreal. I said yes. If I can get to Montreal and you can get the pups on the plane, it’s a go. Emaciated and mostly too young to be on the street, the pup count kept increasing until the night before she was leaving… final puppy tally = 11. If it had been any later, I’m sure she would have had more. All different ages, colours, sizes and litters. It’s cold up north and pups born at the end of August or early September have the added disadvantage of harsh winters to contend with. Small, young animals certainly feel the cold more than older, larger animals.

Sunday: A good friend volunteered to accompany me and this is such a big treat. Twelve hours of driving is long when you’re alone and a second pair of hands is invaluable when dealing with the pups on the way home, especially for the pee breaks. Lucille is awesome. You want a volunteer who sees something that needs doing and just does it. That’s Lucille.

Monday: We stayed overnight in Montreal last night so it only took us five minutes to get to the airport this morning. The plane arrived, the baggage hatch opened and I could see the crates with the dogs. Just as she said, all different sizes, ages, and colours. It never ceases to make me smile to see the way the baggage handlers talk to the dogs and stick their hands in the crates. Never. They gently offloaded the three crates and wheeled them off the tarmac and straight to us. No matter how dogs are described to you, you always build your own picture so of course none of them looked like I had imagined. There were two chocolate labs (or crosses) about 6 weeks old; one golden retriever cross about the same age; one black lab about that age and two that looked to be about 10 weeks old; one six month old female who looked like a flat coated retriever; one black wiener dog cross; and the only littermates in the bunch, a black and tan female and black and white freckled male, about four months old. Everyone looked in good shape, yapping and wagging their tails as we quickly took them out one by one, walked them around quickly to do their business and stretch their legs, and then put them into the crates in the van. Ten minutes and we are ready to go.

IFAW Rescuer Shares Experiences from Philippines Typhoon Efforts

International Fund for Animal Welfare Emergency Relief Responder Sarah Sharp filed this story at the end of animal rescue operations in the Philippines.

My colleague Jackson and I arrived in the Philippines on October 8th as the second wave of disaster responders. With the response in full-swing, we hit the ground running. In the lake-side village of Sukol the need for help was so great that our team had run out of both human and animal relief supplies on the previous day, so we returned to this area to reach all those in need. Our first rescue of the day was a kitten stuck on a hot metal roof, emaciated and dehydrated from the flooding ordeal. My colleague gave me a boost to get out of the murky flood water and onto the roof to feed her. Although skittish at first, she was so hungry that she could not resist the smell of food wafting up to her. When she came out of hiding, we realized just how thin she was, and that without a caretaker present, there was no way this little one would make it. Fortunately, we were able to capture her and get her safely into a crate, where she happily ate the rest of her food while awaiting her trip to the shelter.

Our most successful day that week was also one of the hottest. Dressed in full dry suits and riding in long narrow boats referred to as “bangkas” we split up into three teams and collectively fed 138 cats and 392 dogs, treated 12 cats and 24 dogs, and rescued two abandoned emaciated dogs. The furry faces of each and every animal we saw and helped are forever seared on my mind. At the end of this exciting and exhausting day, we returned to a remote location near the lake where Dick Green, our response manager, thought he had heard barking. Although the boat operator was not thrilled with bringing the small bangka into such deep open water, Dick insisted that the team investigate. Sure enough, we discovered a mother and puppy stuck on the roof of an abandoned shack that was sitting just barely above the water. The two were lethargic and their ribs protruded prominently under their skin. Dick swam from the bangka over to the roof, where he carefully climbed up. The roof was not very strong, and kept buckling under him, but he was able to rescue both of the dogs – first the puppy and then her mother. As we carried the dogs back in our arms, I knew without a doubt, that neither of these dogs would have made it if it were not for Dick’s careful ear and caring heart.

Elephant calf stuck in mud pit rescued and reunited with mother

A wild elephant calf, stuck in a mud pit in a tea garden near Kaziranga National Park in the North eastern Indian state of Assam, was rescued and reunited with its mother, by the Assam Forest Department assisted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and partner Wildlife Trust of India.

The male calf, about four-years old, was found trapped in the mud pit in Kanchanjuri, Bagori Range, Kaziranga. The distressed mother, who remained in the vicinity of the trapped calf, reportedly damaged a bicycle as people approached the calf.

“The mother was nearby and would respond to the calf’s calls and try to approach the pit every time it called. The forest guards kept watch and even fired in the air to scare away the mother, while we tried to rescue the calf,” said Dr Phulmoni Gogoi, IFAW-WTI Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) veterinarian, who attended the rescue.

Dry earth was put into the pit to enable the calf to climb out on its own.

“The calf was healthy, just a bit fatigued by its repeated efforts to extricate itself from the slippery mud in the pit. However as soon as it got out of the pit, it started chasing all of us! It eventually headed off to follow its mother,” Dr Gogoi said.

Annually, a number of Asian elephant calves are separated from their herds due to natural or man-made causes in Assam among other Indian states. IFAW-WTI, through its MVS units in Central and Lower Assam, has attended to seven wild elephants this year, of which five have been released following necessary interventions.

IFAW Canada: Continuing Journal of the Northern Dogs Veterinary Effort

This post was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Jan Hannah, working from remote Cree communities, in the James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.

Day 1 – It seems like we just got home, found great, committed homes for the five dogs we brought south for re-homing, reorganized supplies, but it’s already time to hit the road again. The van is repacked and ready, the road map is out and the Northern Dogs Team is headed back to James Bay, this time to take veterinary services to under-serviced communities along the coast. Essentials for a 22 hour road trip include an interesting audio book, good tunes and a compatible copilot. Jessica, our humane educator from Animals Teach, is that person on this trip. She’s super supportive of Northern Dogs, she’s super comfortable in the classroom and with our overlapping interests we’ll have no trouble filling the 10 or so hours of driving we have ahead of us today. Reaching the coastal communities means hugging the east side of James Bay via the James Bay highway – these communities are farther away than the last ones. We are starting in the northern-most community which is 100 km west of the main highway just below Radisson (which is where the highway ends). From this community, we will travel south back along the James Bay highway to set up clinics in four other communities, each of which is at least 100 km off the highway. Like the last set of clinics, we have all we need for a fully functioning veterinary clinic in the back of one van. Crystal is once again traveling from Ottawa, meeting us for our first overnight in Mattagami.

IFAW's J. Leask on the 20th Anniversary of the Ivory Trade Ban

This month is the 20th anniversary of the start of the global ivory trade ban. In 1989, the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) gave elephants the highest level of protection, which effectively banned the international trade in ivory. This action was taken in response to the alarming slaughter of elephants in Africa in the 1980s, when ivory poaching slashed the continent’s population from more than 1.2 million to about 450,000 in just 10 years.

The anniversary of the ban is not, however, the happy occasion it should be because numerous actions over the past 12 years have undermined its integrity. There is no doubt that, soon after its adoption, poaching levels, illegal trade, ivory prices and global market demand all plummeted -- and with them the incentive to kill elephants.

Efforts Intensify as IFAW Rescues Animals Stranded for More Than a Week

International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Michael Booth reports from the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana. To donate, please visit www.ifaw.org

It has been two days since my last blog entry and much has happened here in the Philippines, so I’ll just dive right into it.

Yesterday we had a very successful day out in Laguna. This town is located approximately 1.5 hours south of the capital city of Manila. The region sits next to a huge lake, beautiful scenery, but not the place you want to be when a Typhoon strikes. In two days, the water level rose in a flash and flooded many of the coastal communities. Some locals expect the flood will continue for the next two months! To assess and rescue animals impacted in this region, we had to source a number of boats. Unlike the floods in much of the city, the water in this rural landscape was much deeper, so it was impossible to suit up and cover the area by trucks or on foot.

Luckily, a boat club learned about our rescue work over the Internet and soon volunteered their time together with 4 boats and 1 kayak to help us reach animals in need. It’s inspiring to meet people like them; they have put their daily lives on hold to help in rescue efforts following Typhoon Ketsana. The day after the storm hit, they were out on their boats pulling people to safety and just a few days ago they were helping the Red Cross in relief efforts conducted in Manila. For more than a week now they have offered their resources and time – true heroes that rose to the occasion, no questions asked.