Tanzania and Kenya lead on animal welfare ranking in Africa
Dar es Salaaam. Factory farming, wildlife trafficking and stray animal culling legislation have all come under the spotlight in a global report of 50 countries by World Animal Protection.
A total of nine countries have been assessed across Africa based on their animal welfare policy and legislation including Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Niger, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Nigeria.
This report comes amid Coronavirus epidemic, that scientists suspect has been passed from wildlife to humans as a result of poor animal welfare.
Other zoonotic diseases that carry deadly consequences for animals and humans include rabies, salmonella and Ebola, all also inherent to poor animal welfare practices.
The Animal Protection Index (API) aims to showcase where countries are doing well, and where they fall short on animal welfare policy and legislation, so they can take steps to improve. This could help prevent devastating health epidemics and put in place good animal welfare practices such as keeping animals clean, healthy and with sufficient space to exhibit natural behaviours.
According to Country Director, Tennyson Williams, World Animal Protection policies that protect animals, protect people too.
“ Some African nations are implementing progressive policies, competitive by global standards. Kenya and Tanzania’s approaches should shine as a beacon of possibility, and I hope they strive for continuous improvement,” he said.
He added: Africa’s population is growing at speed. This means more mouths to feed, more people with companion animals, more people looking to make money, and more people who might look to animals for entertainment. We are at cross-roads, and now is the time to include animal welfare in these critical debates on food, public health and sustainable development.
Having this legislation in place, has meant that both Tanzania and Kenya have scored a ranking of ‘D’, on the API, which puts them in line with other countries such as the USA, Canada and Japan.
South Africa was previously ranked ‘D’ but has now slipped and has been ranked ‘E’ on par with Nigeria. South Africa does have the Animal Protection Act (1962) which prohibits animal cruelty on all domestic animals or wild animals in captivity.
The Performing Animals Act (1935), amended in 2016, also requires establishments training animals for performances or training guard dogs, to be licenced., However, protections for wildlife are limited as South Africa’s lifted the domestic ban on rhinoceros horn trade risks fuelling the international demand for this product.
Nigeria (ranked ‘E’) does not have a dedicated law on animal welfare, although within the Nigeria Criminal Code, animal cruelty is prohibited. For example, animals used for draft purposes cannot be overloaded or overworked, and there is also a national ban on animal fights.
