People depend on their animals and their animals depend on them
An entire family might depend on a single mare or donkey to earn their living, with many pushing their animals to the limit, even when it can lead to unbearable suffering.
Our field staff is committed to preventing such suffering, applying treatments where necessary and raising the awareness among local communities about better animal welfare.
Building awareness
When owners lack sufficient money and medical information, they often resort to local healers and traditional treatments rather than seeking proper veterinary help.
Traditional healing can take the form of firing, threading, nostril slitting or using boiling oil for hoof problems. Some of these traditional treatments can mutilate animals, resulting in severe wounds, joint dislocation, fractures and irreversible nerve damage.
We are committed to ending these practices by building local awareness about how much harm they cause to animals.
Treatment and training
Through the Brooke's static and mobile clinics, we arrange treatment sessions, trainings, community meetings and school visits to spread simple welfare messages and advice on how to keep animals safe and healthy. Through these activities, Brooke Egypt teaches respect for animals and also explains ways to improve basic animal care.
Providing high quality veterinary services
We estimate there are 222,000 horses, donkeys and mules in the areas where we work. These animals work very hard to provide an income for their owners and they need rest, quality food and a high standard of veterinary care.
Brooke Egypt's thirty mobile veterinary teams develop awareness and spread animal welfare messages throughout our areas of operation.
A typical day will see our mobile teams examining up to fifty animals a day while guaranteeing a high standard of veterinary care.
The average number of cases treated by mobile veterinary teams reaches approximately 19,000 every month. This number is set to increase as Brooke Egypt plans to reach even more areas where working animals need our help.
A typical day in the life of a mobile clinic in Luxor
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Building awareness in animal communities
- Training local health providers
Brooke Egypt is working with more than 340 local service providers - such as farriers, saddlers, hair clippers, local healers and governmental vets. We work closely with them so they become fully trained in their fields of expertise. We also hope they will return to their communities as advocates of the Brooke and spread our message even further. - Cooperation with local community associations
For the last few years, we have been collaborating with local community associations and government bodies to improve the working and living conditions of animals. We focus on providing them with information about animal welfare such as the Five Freedoms and the importance of spreading these messages far and wide. - Working with the rural guides
We work with more than 180 rural guides in Alex, Luxor, Edfu, Aswan, Marsa Matrouh and Sherbin, training them on how to deliver animal welfare messages to women.
- Research
Credible, well-developed research is vital to our work. The research team uses evidence-based, scientific methodologies, collecting data from the field and then analysing it to provide recommendations which drive our work forward.
- Assessing welfare
The Brooke aims to measure animal welfare from the animal’s point of view. Results can be used in a number of different ways in order to support our programme and to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the Brooke's work. Welfare assessment looks at the animal based on health measures or outputs rather than inputs such as food, water, shelters and bedding, as the provision of these inputs is not always translated into the desired welfare outputs such as good animal welfare.