Animals around the world have had an ally in the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) for more than 50 years.WSPA is an animal welfare organization that lends support to animals in need locally and internationally. They have 12 offices worldwide, with their head office in the United Kingdom, and have operated in Toronto since the early 1980s.
Michelle Cliffe, communications manager for WSPA Canada, said besides aid, the organization also has a large educational component because every country has different views and policies regarding animals.
"To do the work properly, you have to work with people in country and on the ground," Cliffe said. "We feel that it's difficult to make a difference for the animals when you don't have people who actually understand the culture in a particular country so that's why we are an international organization."
Cliffe said people in certain countries don't view animals as important as Canadians do so in order to make a difference to animals in those countries, WSPA has to understand the cultural differences to implement education and change.
For example, WSPA has an office in Beijing where animal welfare really isn't on the agenda because there are so many human issues that country is dealing with. Another example is Afghanistan, Cliffe said.
"We do tend to go to countries where there isn't an emphasis on animal welfare because it's in those areas that we feel animals need the most help," Cliffe said.
And the organization doesn't discriminate; wherever there are animals in need, WSPA will help.
Cliffe said they will respond to any disaster area, such as the cyclone in Myanmar in May where the organization sent vets to the devastated region. More than half of the country works in agriculture so livestock is worth about 17.5 per cent of Myanmar's gross domestic product.
"So you can imagine the impact the loss of farm animals is going to have when countries like this rely so heavily on their animals," Cliffe said. "It's small-scale farmers who have a few heads of cattle that they use to plow the fields. It's these people (who) are really affected by the loss of animal life."
Internationally, Cliffe said there are many shocking issues the organization is working on.
One campaign is fighting to end bear bile farming in Asia. In China, Vietnam and Korea, as part of traditional medicine, people in those countries believe bear bile has medicinal properties.
"They keep bears in cages, and bears probably live between 10 to 25 in captivity, and they spend their entire lives in a cage where they cannot stand up or turn around and a couple of times a day the bile is taken out of their gall bladder without anesthetic and it's extremely painful for the bears," she said.
But foreign soil isn't the only place where animals are in need.
Cliffe said there are several campaigns throughout Canada and in Ontario they are working on, one of which is the Northern Dog Project, where WSPA works with First Nations communities and their stray dog and overpopulation problems.
"First Nations people typically will let their dogs roam in the community, but it's creating a problem because often the dogs are not spayed or neutered and because some of these communities are remote they also don't have access to veterinary care," she said.
WSPA is working with about 20 groups across Canada hosting spay and neuter clinics in First Nations communities, giving vaccines and taking unwanted dogs and finding them homes.
In order to further their reach, Cliffe said WSPA works with local and international animal welfare groups to get the job done when they themselves can't be there.
"The WSPA has 900 member societies in 150 countries and these animal welfare groups become members of the WSPA and we provide them with funding in many cases, resources, information, training, you name it," Cliffe said.
Lobbying for new legislation and drumming up support is a large part of what WSPA does. Currently the organization is lobbying to get Bill 50 passed in the Ontario legislature. The bill is to change animal cruelty laws in this province.
"If the bill passes, it will actually bring us to having the best animal welfare legislation in the country," she said.
It will mean more funding for enforcement and more protection for the animals. Considering Ontario animal cruelty laws are 116 years old, the change to the bill is long overdue, she said.
"Change doesn't happen overnight, it's incremental and it happens very slowly, but when it does happen, like if this bill passes, it will make a tremendous difference and it will all be worth it."
Visit http://www.wspa.ca to learn more about WSPA.