AKI awarded Save Animals a grant in 2018 to 1) purchase rabies vaccine to vaccinate cats and dogs and 2) hold press conferences on three national television channels over several days. The objective, besides protecting cats and dogs against rabies, was to raise the visibility of Save Animals and their anti-dog eating, pro-good pet care campaign. Animal welfare is at a very basic level in the DRC and AKI's grant to Save Animals was expected to give them a "jump start" getting their presence and message out to the public--and it is! Below, Ekwa with Save Animals tells us about the rabies campaign and updates us on their plans for the press conferences and the future.
With the Animal-Kind International grant, Save Animals held a free rabies vaccination campaign where we vaccinated 94 pets (dogs and chats) and gave a legal certificate to pet owners. Some pets of police were also vaccinated. Save Animals rabies vaccination campaign took place over two days. Pictures below.
You may have heard that the DRC recently held a presidential election. Before and immediately after the election, security was an issue. For the press conference we are a bit late because we want to invite foreign ambassadors, international animal organizations based here (these are mainly wildlife and conservation organizations), and United Nations to take part in the activity. Ambassadors and guests cannot safely attend because of the security problems we are undergoing. Because of the high level of people who will attend, we chose to relocate the place that was originally planned for the press conference and chose a room of the Institut Français (French Institute). When we contacted them, they said they cannot schedule us this year. Following this, we wrote a letter to them to reserve the last week of January 2019. Before that date in January we will face the problem of unavailability of guests because they won't have returned yet from holidays. We want an effective press release so we are waiting until security returns and key people are available.
Even with the poor security situation, we continue to work. Save Animals raises awareness of animal welfare issues on local radio shows. Pictures below.
As part of our awareness activities we are planning a great activity: Dog's Showcase is an event initiated by Save Animals with the aim of promoting dogs by putting them in competition in different categories. Dog's Showcase allows 10 dogs in each category of different competitions in front of a jury of specialists. The rules of the competition are quite strict, and supervised by famous, credible and well known people of Kinshasa in canine activities. The showcase will gather the main canine agencies in collaboration with Save Animals. We will have a beauty competition, behavior competition, agility, obedience, rhythmic obedience, and even a competition for dog trainers. It will a paid event and fees will be used to fund our large-scale free vaccination.
We will continue to update you on the press conference and the Dog's Showcase.