Training and Enabling Villagers about Animal Rights

On Monday OTEPIC members and their friends organized a free vaccination for sheep and goats and other domestic animals. We vaccinated many animals from morning until noon. It was a great adventure.

OTEPIC believes that animals are an intrinsic part of the environment. As such, they have rights that must be respected. Animals have the right to

• live in a clean and safe environment
• express normal behavior and
• be protected from pest and diseases

OTEPIC is training farmers about animal rights. In our village, it is not uncommon for people to mistreat animals. For example, donkeys are not fitted with proper equipment for work and sustain injuries to their bodies. Commonly used methods of handling and transporting animals result in injuries to the animals, and animals are slaughtered in inhumane ways.

OTEPIC's position is that plants and animals can be combined to form an inner harmony, a symbiosis from which productivity will arise naturally while inputs are reduced. In this system ecology and economics eventually meet. Farms can become self sustaining when the manure necessary for sufficient plant growth comes from the farm and when its animals are fed exclusively from the farm's own crop production.

Animals are cool! Keep animals with dignity.