In his intervention on livestock evacuation Naritsorn (Nort) Pholperm, International Response Manager at World Protection Animal, presented fascinating details that need to be taken into account, when bringing livestock to safety. A lot of this is not always known. As Naritsorn says: “Evacuating animals, both livestock and pets, is not easy, almost every government has experience with evacuating people, but there is not so much knowledge on evacuating animals”. If livestock cannot be evacuated prior to the shock, in most cases, owners will be forced to sell at auction markets. If they do so shortly before or after the crisis, according to Naritsorn’s experience, the prices will go down by 80-90 percent, which is dramatic as livestock is a key productive asset and families depend on it.
Why do owners not evacuate? According to Naritsorn, they often do not know if they are allowed to take their animals, are uncertain about the conditions at the destination, and are unaware of what they need at hand. It is often unclear whether evacuation vehicles take animals (often not, as specialized vehicles are needed. Farmers often do not know how to load those vehicles. The time it takes to evacuate livestock, depends on the method of transportation. In many cases walking can actually be faster, depending on road condition but also on the species, e.g. cattle can walk faster than pigs and of course you cannot walk chicken for long distances. On the other hand pigs can be transported by truck faster, but a loading ramp and a blinder are needed. “If that is not there, then things get complicated.” If roads are still passable with ideal preparation it takes 1.5 hours from time of calling the truck to transport three cattle to sites 20km away.