At
least fifteen livestock assistants drawn from the Department of Livestock
Directorate Service in West Coast Region recently wrapped up one-day training
on animal welfare.
The training, held at the Regional Directorate
Livestock Services in Brikama, was organised under the auspices of the WTG Vet
United Programme.
Speaking
at the training, Dr Kebba Daffeh, Coordinator of WTG Vet United in The Gambia,
stressed that the training was meant to build the capacity of livestock
assistants so that they could mainstream animal welfare into their day-to-day
activity.
Dr
Daffeh explained that Vet United is a Berlin registered animal welfare
organization and their focus was improving animal welfare through education in
developing countries.
According
to Dr Daffeh, the participants were drawn from the regional directorate of the
department of livestock services in the West Coast Region.
“We
deemed it very important to bring the livestock assistants together to train
them about animal welfare because animal welfare is one of the main components
of improving agriculture in The Gambia,” he said.
He lamented that unfortunately, animal welfare
in the country was completely neglected due to number of reasons, and one of
them was inadequate capacity building on animal welfare.
Mr
Daffeh disclosed that through the intervention of the WTG VET United, they have
already laid animal welfare programme in both the Gambia College and the
University of The Gambia.
He
also stated that since September 2016, they have trained about 200 people on
animal welfare and certified most of them with competency in animal welfare.
“We
hope to continue with this type of programme to ensure that Gambia has a
critical mass of adequately trained staff that will contribute in improving
animal welfare in The Gambia,” he added.
He
said during the training participants were introduced to basic topics such as
animal welfare, animal welfare freedom, animal welfare assessment as well as
how to assess their level in such areas as animal care, good feeding, proper
housing and disease management and control.
He
conceded that the scope of the training was very wide but he nonetheless
challenged the participants to mainstream animal welfare and ensure that the
knowledge gained was put into practice.
For
his part, Bakary Jammeh, the regional director for livestock service in the
West Coast Region, also expressed similar sentiments and described the training
as timely and long overdue considering the importance attached to animal
welfare.
He
said the training was geared towards exposing the livestock assistants to the
welfare of animals and advised the participants to take the training seriously.
