Beyond Food and Water: Five Things Your Pet Really Needs
Did you know that animals, just like humans, have rights too? One globally recognized standard for animal welfare is the Five Freedoms. Enforced by Fiji’s Protection of Animals Act, these freedoms outline essential conditions for ensuring our pets lead happy and healthy lives.
Let’s explore how you can ensure your furry friends thrive under these principles.
What is Animal Welfare?
Animal welfare is all about making sure animals are happy and healthy. This includes their physical health, mental state, and how they handle their surroundings. It’s kind of like being a detective for animals! We use science and ethics (what’s right and wrong) to figure out how an animal is doing by looking at its behaviour and health. There are laws and even special international recognised rules called the Five Freedoms that help us take care of animals properly.
Standards & Rules of Care for Animals
The Fiji Protection of Animals Act of 1954 is a set of laws in place to protect Fiji’s animals, ensuring their humane treatment. Central to this act are the Five Freedoms, which serve as a universal standard of care.
Under the Protection of Animals Act cruelty is defined as any act that allows for the suffering and inhumane treatment of animals. Currently, this is punishable by up to a $100 fine and 6 months in prison.
Ensuring Your Pet’s Five Freedoms: What Can You Do?
First of all, make sure that you are feeding your pet a nutritious diet and that they have access to fresh, clean water at all times.
A good diet is dependent on what type of animal you are caring for. Farm animals like horses, cows and sheep need access to good green grass and fresh water at all times. Dogs and cats need meat based diets and we recommend feeding kibble specific to their age group. Puppies should get fed three times a day until they are about 6-12 months old and kittens need kitten food until they are about 6 months old.
Animals of all sorts need shelter from the sun and rain to ensure their comfort.
Horses and farm animals should have access to shade from trees or buildings and should have somewhere to take cover in rain storms. Dogs and cats need to have comfortable and safe places to sleep, where they can be out of the rain and they can cool off on sunny days. A dog house, or access to inside your house is important.
The easiest way to ensure that your animals are safe from disease is to bring them to your closest veterinarian, like Animals Fiji’s clinics in Nadi, Lautoka, Savusavu and Labasa for their vaccinations, deworming and examinations.
Diseases like parvo, distemper and heartworm in dogs are often fatal, but are also very easy to prevent with vaccinations and preventative medications.
Desexing also prevents TVT, a sexually transmitted disease in dogs. Desexing your animal is one of the easiest ways to help prevent injuries as well.
Desexed dogs and cats will stay closer to home and be less likely to get into fights or get hit by a car. Desexing should be done before they are 6 months old. As well in horses, gelding can prevent fighting and unwanted pregnancies.
Behaviour is a very important part of an animal’s life, and one of the five freedoms. They must be allowed to express normal behaviours.
Some animals, like horses, sheep and cows, are herd animals, and being alone causes them great stress. They need to have other members of their species to feel safe and protected.
Dogs and cats also need to have the ability to express their normal behaviours.
Cats can be happy as solitary animals, but they need to have safe places to climb, relax, shelter from the rain and sun and comfortable places to sleep.
Dogs need to have interactions with other dogs and humans.
They should not be kept on a chain all day; in fact, the Animal Protection Act states in section 3.1.g that it is considered an offence of cruelty if a person “shall neglect as the owner or person in charge to exercise or cause to be exercised daily and reasonably, any dog habitually chained up or kept in confinement”.
Dogs need comfortable places to sleep, shelter, companionship and space to play and run.
Fear is an emotional state that can be felt by all animals. We have all been scared of something before, and can understand the anxiety that fear brings.
It is important that we provide appropriate spaces for our pets to feel comfortable and free from anxiety. This means that herd animals like horses must have companionship to feel safe and rested.
Cats must have areas they can jump up high to feel safe from predators.
Dogs must have freedom to interact with other dogs (and be able to move away from), must have a safe space to go when there are loud noises (thunder), must be able to get out of the rain, be safe from traffic and dog fights (desex your pet!) and have human kindness and companionship.
Real-World Example: The Five Freedoms in Action
On one of Animals Fiji’s recent visits to Labasa Clinics, they performed a critical surgery on a cow that had been suffering from a tumour in its eye for over a year.
The Ministry of Agriculture Labasa office reached out regarding this concerning case.
Leaving the tumor untreated would have been a violation of Fiji’s Protection of Animals Act.
The Act defines cruelty as any act that causes suffering, and leaving a large, painful tumour untreated would certainly cause the cow significant pain and distress.
This would be a neglect case, as the owner wouldn’t be providing the cow with the Five Freedoms it deserves.
The surgery, while graphic visually, emphasises the realities of animal care and the importance of the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare.
The successful procedure addressed the cow’s freedom from pain, injury, and distress.
Animals Fiji highlights the importance of their outreach programs in providing veterinary care, ensuring animals in remote areas have access to the Five Freedoms, like freedom from discomfort through proper veterinary treatment.
Animals Fiji helps animals all around Fiji, with clinics in Savusavu, Labasa, Nadi and Lautoka, and they also hold outreach clinics in other areas.
As a non-profit charity, Animals Fiji depends on the kindness of donations to continue its work of supporting animals across Fiji.
To learn more about Animals Fiji and how you can help, contact their Savusavu Clinic at (+679) 998 6253 or Nadi Clinic at (+679) 993 6647 or visit their website at www.animalsfiji.org.