SPANA-Society For The Protection Of Animals In North Africa

Helping the worlds working animals.

Spana was founded by Kate and Nina Hosali (mother and daughter).

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In 1923 they travelled to North Africa. As they travelled through the countryside they noticed awful sights of donkeys, mules and camels – they were malnourished (lack of food), weak and buckling (legs giving way) under the weight of heavy loads; they had wounds inflicted by poorly fitting harnesses.

They felt so sad, that from 1924 to 1926 they travelled from village to village, country to country looking for animals that needed help.

The animals were used to transport very important food and water into villages, they would take goods to market and carry people to work and schools and hospitals, even when these animals were poorly and hurt and sad they still had to carry on with their heavy jobs.

Spana still helps working animals to this day, so for the past 95 years they have provided vet care when animals suffer, they train vets and show people how to take care of the animals, they teach children how to respect and show compassion towards the animals and they help in emergencies and crisis.

It takes love and commitment towards animals from these wonderful people to do a job that is needed, I think they deserve a 10/10 for a job very well done.

Goldfish Life Jacket.

I came across this lovely story today.

A pet parent of a goldfish noticed that his fish was not swimming upright.

This concerned him, so he used a cork (which naturally floats) and some gauze and attached them to his fish and now the fish can swim and float and stay upright.

He is one happy little goldfish.

Great job to #theperfectpetparent

Whales in captivity.

Many years ago my family and I went to Canada and we went to see a pod of killer whales ( a ‘pod’ means group), we saw these pods out in the ocean.

We were on a small boat and the killer whales were swimming around us, it was one of the most wonderful experience of our lives, they were all happily swimming close together, they also had a baby whale (baby whales are called calf’s).

The whales came to the surface of the water to breathe air, the baby was not strong enough to break the water (‘break’ means comes up and out of the water) so the mommy breaks the water first and then the baby follows. It was amazing to watch the baby whale copy its mother.

They kept jumping out of the water and splashing back down again and slapping their fins against the water, this is called breaching, they communicate like this over long distances.

Some people think it ok to capture these marine mammals and make them do tricks, they put them in small tanks where they do not have room to swim. Whales and dolphins swim large distances daily in search of food, in captivity the get thrown some fish at certain times of the day, this is not natural for them.

They get very sad and scared and they get poorly, they just keep swimming back and forth in the same place and they hurt themselves.

However, the Canadian government have passed a law banning whales, dolphins and porpoises from being held and bred in captivity, this means that no one in Canada can go into the ocean and capture them.

This came into action on June 11th 2019.

which is great news, isnt it?

Circus Animals.

A long time ago, most circuses had animals and everyone loved seeing them and enjoyed watching them do tricks, but, no one thought how the animals felt or how they were looked after or were they happy!

We have since found out through news and social media that the animals were living a horrible life.

They would spend their time tied up or chained, they didn’t have a lot of room to move about as all wild animals should, they were always lived in cramped conditions.

They would then come out to perform unnatural tricks for people who paid for a ticket.

It is not natural for wild animals to do tricks, so the owners would hurt them very badly and scare them, and because the animals were frightened they had to do the tricks, the animals were very sad.

When people heard of this they were very angry and wanted to help the animals, so they started a campaign to stop having animals in circuses. A lot of countries have stopped now and there are two circuses left in the UK, but by the 19th January 2020 it will be banned and all the animals will go to a sanctuary, a sanctuary is a place for animals to live a lovely life.

I will let you know when this happens and we can all say “Hip hip hooray” together!

A circus in Germany uses holograms instead of real animals, which is the best way forward. How fantastic are these pictures!