Dr Michael Morris Animal welfare writer nzchas.canterbury

While the recent disasters in Christchurch and Japan have been terrible in terms of human costs, we need to remember that animals are suffering too. These victims, and their human guardians, are often ignored or sidelined by government and NGO aid organisations and by individuals.

During Hurricane Katrina, distressed pet owners were blocked entry to flooded areas to look for their companions. Others refused to be rescued unless they could take their pets with them, actions that did not endear them to rescue workers. In Christchurch too, there are ‘no go' areas of the city and one wonders how seriously rescue workers and the imported police and army personnel took the grief of those searching for their pets.

Those who lost human loved ones in Christchurch and other disasters receive sympathy from friends and the community. Sadly, many people do not take seriously the grief caused by ‘pet loss', even though this can be just as severe for those suffering from it.

Nevertheless, societal attitudes are slowly starting to change as we realise that pets are irreplaceable friends, and not replaceable tools or toys. But there are other animals lost in disasters who receive no mention at all. I am referring to the large number of factory farmed animals such as pigs, chickens, and the trapped Japanese dolphins at Taiji, who were left to be battered to death by the tsunami.

Proponents of factory farming are keen to cite high mortality rates of free range conditions, which sporadically occur through outbreaks of cannibalism or disease. They are less keen to acknowledge the vulnerability that factory farmed animals, trapped in their cages, have to earthquakes, floods and tornadoes. In Canterbury an entire battery farm with thousands of hens was damaged in the first earthquake and most hens died as a result. A video clip of a hen house damaged by a tornado in the United States, with bulldozers scooping still living hens into a giant skip is a sad indictment of western society.

The Red Cross and other aid organisations have vast resources at their disposal to help human victims of disasters such as Christchurch and Japan. Those looking after the non human victims have far fewer resources. I urge readers donating to the Christchurch and Japan earthquake relief programmes to spare at least some of their cash to organisations that are dedicated to rescuing these forgotten victims.