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Field Report From
Banda Aceh
Dr. Wayan of HSI and Bali Street Dog Foundation
among ruble in Banda Aceh (photo HSI)
Editor's note: Due to communications problems up until now we have had only sketchy reports about the animal welfare situation in Aceh, the area hardest hit by the tsunami. The following is taken from the first full field report that was transcribed during a satellite telephone conversation with Sherry Grant of HSI, and Ray Butcher of WSPA, who are heading a combined team in Banda Aceh.
10 January 2005
Banda Aceh
It is absolutely impossible to describe the carnage of the horrific situation in Banda Aceh. Think of the pictures of Hiroshima after the atom bomb and you begin to get the picture.
The line separating the devastated areas from those areas untouched is sometimes striking. Some areas are completely devastated, while just across the street there might be little damage and life goes on almost normal.
We saw six Indians elephants are helping to remove the ruble.
Even more than two weeks after the tsunami, thousand of bodies still remain unburied and many if not most are still under the ruble which averages about 6 feet (2 meters) deep. Among the ruble are also thousand of dead animals. The smell is overwhelming.
A majority of
the homes had small little backyard farming setups where they kept
chickens, ducks and goats. In the central area these animals were
either in enclosures of tethered. As a result practically all of
these animals died. In the more outlying areas, the animals were
allowed to roam free therefore many more of them survived.
The few live dogs that we did see looked relatively healthy. But the Indonesian soldiers reported seeing some dogs feeding off of the cadavers.
In an area
near the sea, the devastation is complete. It is leveled as far as
the eye can see. It looks like Hiroshima after the bomb. The
body bags increased in numbers along the side of the road. We
stopped counting. There were too many.
In many areas the debris was piled as high as 20 ft.
Our host is Dr. Wahyu’s, who accompanied us from Medan and has been extremely helpful in our work. We are staying at his father in law’s home where he had just recently buried his mother-in-law in a shallow grave. Other family members were still missing.
We went to the university where the grounds appeared to be a safe haven for many farm animals. We counted 98 cows who all appeared to be in satisfactory condition.
Cows in rice paddy killed by sea water
Leaving the university, we headed back over the bridge to a riverbank which was normally used as a grazing area to fatten the cows. There were dozens of cows there but the grass has now been compromised by brackish river water and is dead. The cows had nothing to eat.
In one area on the fringe of the town, where the animals were permitted to roam and graze, there were many live animals There were hectares of grazing cattle, water buffalo and sheep in lush green fields. This was an example of the type of abrupt changes from a devastated area to an undamaged area that we referred to earlier. On one side of the road everything was alive and well, on the other side everything was completed dead and destroyed.
At his point we were on the fringes of Banda Aceh and we had been warned of rebel activity in the area. Apparently the rebels are slowly encroaching on the city. Yesterday one or two people were killed (we’re not sure of the exact number). We returned to town.
Heading back to town, we came across four cats hiding underneath a 90 foot trawling ship that had been deposited five km from the sea and now rests in the parking lot of a hotel.
We stopped at a small fruit stall. There were 18 cats, 2 ducks, 8 chickens, and hordes of flies. So many flies that we called it the “Fly By Diner”. The owner of restaurant said that the cat population in general has noticeably decreased since the tsunami. But at her food stall they have dramatically increased. She is the only food seller up and running in the area. That is why the cats are there. There were cats all over the place jumping up on the tables to get food whenever they had an opportunity. They were obviously hungry.
We heard that there was a zoo that had animals that were evacuated. We later learned that there was no zoo, but that the Forestry Department had a holding facility that had one tiger and a crocodile. Both escaped during the tsunami. The military subsequently shot tiger for human safety. However the crocodile is still at large!
- Sherry Grant, Ray Butcher, Garry Richardson, and Putu Listriani
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