ANIMAL WELFARE LEAGUE FEATURES AT THE 50TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE GHANA VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

INTRODUCTION

“Efforts invested in improving the lives of animals and community health can yield the greatest results if they are focused on policies, areas and animal species that can bring about the biggest impact.” said Dr. Richard Dogbatse. 

The Animal Welfare League (AWL), on October 25, 2024, featured at the 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana Veterinary Medical Association (GVMA) which was themed “Strengthening Veterinary Services in Ghana for a Resilient Food System” in Koforidua in the Eastern region of Ghana.

HIGHLIGHTS

During this meeting, the AWL team led by the community affairs manager, Dr Richard Dogbatse, delivered a presentation on the recently published report titled “Ghana Prioritization Report”- a collaborative report with Animal Ask, which defined a roadmap for improving animal welfare, food safety and community health, and underscored the top priority avenues where animal welfare can be improved and highly impacted. 

The report highlighted the severe deficiency in Ghana’s criminal code in exhaustively capturing animal welfare legislation and remarked on the need for a general animal welfare act as addressed by the report. The report also elaborated on other top opportunities for improving farm animal welfare in Ghana’s agriculture - cage-free work for hens, poultry disease prevention, pre-slaughter stunning, water quality improvement on tilapia farms, and strengthening biosecurity practices in aquaculture. 

The president of the GVMA, Dr. Joseph Kofi Abuh and Dr. Jonathan Amakye-Anim, current chair of the Veterinary Council of Ghana, were handed copies of the whitepaper of the report by the AWL team led by the director, Dr. Daniel Abiliba; a significant step in engaging with the GVMA and the Veterinary Council, relevant stakeholders to advancing animal welfare in Ghana for the consideration of the recommendations.     

Both stakeholders expressed their sincere gratitude for bringing these issues to their attention and highlighted their readiness to give the necessary support to advance animal wellbeing in the country.

We are thrilled to incorporate animal welfare topics into these important discussions. The recent 50th AGM marked the first national event to include animal welfare in its agenda, attracting about 70 veterinary doctors nationwide. Furthermore, detailed insights from this report were shared with GVMA members in the form of brochures as takeaways.

APPRECIATION

 A very big thank you to the leadership and the entire GVMA for the warm reception. We look forward to continuing working together.