By Isatou Sarr
The animal welfare advocates of the Gambia College organised a day-long sensitization forum on the welfare of animals.
The forum, held at the Gambia College in Brikama on Saturday, was in observance of the annual World Animal Day commemorations.
Muhamed Hazaly Bah, the president of Animal Welfare Association of the Gambia College, in opening remarksstated that the World Animal Day is an annual event, which is attended by invited schools, the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust, National Livestock Association, relevant stakeholders, lecturers from the Gambia College and the University of The Gambia.
“We will visit schools to create awareness about animals so that the young children in schools can grow with the mentality of advocating for animal welfare,’’ he underlined.
For his part, Dr. Kebba Daffeh, a lecturer at the Gambia College, stated that the main purpose of the forum “is to expose advocates to the concept of animal welfare so that they will know how to improve animal welfare in the country”. “So, to us, it is a very important event,” he added.
Dr. Daffeh pointed out that youth are the future without whom, there will be no animal welfare protection in The Gambia.
‘’We are lucky that we have a lot of animal welfare clubs in different schools in the country. We also have animal welfare-friendly schools,which are the highest level you can reach. So, we are hopeful that animal welfare in The Gambia will be improved through education. We have trained a lot of teachers at theGambia College on animal welfare and they are now teaching in different schools across the country,’’ added Dr. Daffeh.
He pointed out that the Gambia’s Constitution is very much concerned about the protection of the environment, the flora and fauna. The Constitution, he went on, has specifically mentioned the protection of animal genetic resources, biodiversity and the protection of welfare of animals. He added that the Constitution has positioned The Gambia among the leading countries in terms of animal welfare protection.
