A woman with a passion for animal rights

JEAN GILCHRIST is no ordinary woman. She has raised her voice to fight for animal rights for many years and although not many Kenyans have recognised her efforts, Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (KSPCA) holds her with very high esteem.

Jean is currently the director of KSPCA, and she has been at the forefront in motivating Kenyans in realising that animals too, like human beings, have their rights.

She is always against mistreatment of any animal be it tamed or wild, like denying them food, beating them, cutting and burning their skin for no apparent reason and using crude method in slaughtering them.

To Jean, even sporting activities like bull fighting are wrong. "Why should you subject animals to that kind of suffering? They get hurt and at times even die!” She says bitterly.

According to her, animals have feelings that must be taken care of too.

Asked about her academic history, Jean says, “I studied Biology. Then I further studied animal psychology and how to take care of them. Taking X-ray pictures is also part of my studies and I have practiced it for quite sometime.”

She first got to know KSPCA when she came to Kenya with her husband over 27 years ago. By then her husband was working for the AMREF.

She recalls taking care of a cat in their house and that’s where everything she is doing today begun. As volunteers they joined and worked happily for KSPCA since then.

She is now happy that many Kenyans are embracing her idea. "These days we see some people taking their animals to clinics for treatment and vaccinations. It was unheard off before." She says.

At the moment, KSPCA officials are saving animals mainly in Nairobi estates. “We operate in most estates in Nairobi and its suburbs. There many people who from one estate to the other and leave their animals suffering.

She remembers when a rabbies outbreak erupted in Mount Elgon and they rushed there to treat the animals and campaign for the care of animals. "And it worked!" She remarked, "the attitude of the residents towards animals changed completely."

When asked whether they receive complaints from people such as neighbours having dogs or cats that are a nuisance to them her answer was positive.

"There are those people who would leave their animals hungry, sick and in the cold outside. The animals would make noise and disturb the neighbourhood and cases would land in our offices all the time."

"What we do in arbitration is call the parties concerned and talk to them. If they do nothing to improve the situation then we would take them to court and have them charged under the Animal Cruelty Act. "

"It has brought a lot of positive changes to the society as animals are now safe and people are living harmoniously."

KSPCA also assists the county councils in controlling the numbers of loitering animals, they do this through castration of the animals.

Jean says, “The courts have to revise the fines given to those who are cruel to animals. A fine of Sh2,000 is not enough to somebody who slaughters an animal badly! It should be Sh10,000 and above to scare off the offenders.”

One can hire domestic animals from KSPCA. They give about 600 dogs a year, cats. We charge Sh6,000 per dog per year while for a cat is Sh800 a year.

The money collected goes towards their food and treatment. We follow up to know whether for sure they are comfortable where they are kept.

“We have seen a lot of improvement. Even in butcheries bullets are used instead of killing animals brutally like it used to happen before. Also the veterinary department works hand in hand with us especially in their policy workshops. We discuss the policies together,” says Jean.