Updates from the Field:
Update on the Uganda SPCA
As you can imagine, the USPCA needs to raise funds for the significant expenses of running the kennels. There's rent and salaries to pay, veterinary care and medicines, and dog food to buy.
Some of the People Who Make the USPCA Work Katia Ruiz Allard is a Peruvian biologist who grew up in Africa, and has lived in Uganda for over ten years. Soon after she moved to Kampala, she found that there were a lot of dogs and cats living in pretty miserable conditions, yet there was no organization working to improve the situation. She approached Dr. Johnson Acon, professor of veterinary medicine and head of the Veterinary Department at Makerere University in Kampala, who agreed that there was a need for such an organization. Together they formed the USPCA-the Uganda Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. Katia is currently Vice Chairperson of USPCA. After registering as a non-governmental organization in Uganda, sponsoring a children’s contest to come up with a logo, the very next action on the USPCA’s list was to start having spay days. Katia began organizing spay days in Entebbe, where she lived at the time (in 1997), and Karen began organizing spay days in Kampala, where she was living.
Eventually, the USPCA decided that rather than only have a vet on call for spay days, it would make more sense to have a part-time vet available to the USPCA on an as-need basis. The vet would organize spay days and do the surgery, and would also be available, via USPCA hotline, to respond to calls from the public about animals in need. After a few years, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) agreed to support a USPCA proposal to build the Kamwokya Animal Center in a very poor part of Kampala. The USPCA would focus their animal care there, but would still respond to other parts of the city, as needed. The animal center had a room for surgeries and other vet care, an office, and a humane education room with a library, geared to educating children about animals. Within a couple of years, the USPCA had sterilized about 200 animals just in the Kamwokya area, and more in other parts of Kampala, as well as Entebbe. The USPCA continues to be very active in Kampala and sometimes beyond.
See "USPCA 's Requests" for information on how you can help animals in Uganda.
As a Ugandan born and bred organization, the USPCA decided to ask Ugandans what the USPCA should do about animal welfare in Uganda. The overwhelming majority of Ugandans mentioned livestock and the horrendous livestock transport conditions. Ugandans wanted cattle traveling from west and north into Kampala to be transported in a more humane manner.
We completed all steps of the project except the last, we never were able to construct a livestock friendly truck. However, out of this project, with help from a working group formed during the high level roundtable, the Ugandan Government developed bylaws for livestock transport, and while often not implemented, they are in force today. Livestock  For each Animal Check Point, the USPCA has to cover retainer costs and transport costs for at least two policemen, one Kampala City Council Veterinary Officer, and one Senior Officer from the Veterinary Department. In addition, we cover transport (and salary) for the USPCA Officer. It is important to have all these staff at each checkpoint to minimize the opportunity for corruption. One Animal Check Point costs the USPCA, in Uganda shillings, as follows: 15,000 Ug sh/policeman x 2 = 30,000 15,000 Ug sh/City Council Officer 20,000 Ug sh/Senior staff 10,000 Ug sh/USPCA officer Total=75,000 Ug shillings, approximately It costs the USPCA US $50 for every Animal Check Point. We try to have at least two Animal Check Points in place each week—the Animal Check Points have been a proven method; the fines and threat of imprisonment have made a real impact on the way cattle are loaded, but we have a long way to go and must be able to keep these checkpoints in place. Read about Karen's Humane Education experiences in Uganda Visit the Simba Photo Gallery
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The Uganda SPCA has opened an animal shelter. This is the first and only animal shelter in Uganda. "The Haven," located in a shanty section of Mbuya (Kampala), consists of nine dog kennels, one puppy holding kennel for newcomers, and a double cattery. USPCA has the use of the garden and kitchen of the facility and Vet Berna has created a state of the art veterinary clinic. 
There is a disgruntled mascot dog called Kenny-the first "client" the USPCA accepted. He is Lord of the Manor and struts around while the other dogs look at him in envy. A young couple serve as caretakers. He is called Paulo and he looks after the animals and the compound. His wife, Allen, helps with bookkeeping and with the animals. Berna is training Allen to be a veterinary assistant. Ibra continues to do his field work and is now coming four days a week to the Haven to help Paulo.
Ibra Nsereko was employed as a gardener, but had an obvious love for and way with dogs and cats. His interest in animals and willingness to help the USPCA and any animal in need was noticed, and he was given a part-time position as the USPCA Community Animal Welfare Officer. He moved around his community, checking on the dogs and cats in the area; helping people care for their pets and helping homeless animals as well; and working closely with the USPCA Vet, arranging Spay-Neuter Days. After some time in this position, World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) provided funds for Ibra to oversee and conduct humane education in schools around Kampala. Those funds have not been renewed, but Ibra continues his work as USPCA Officer, working in poor communities to help dogs and cats, and also checking on reports of animal cruelty and picking up strays. The USPCA now provides his salary and transport expenses. 
Acquiring a dog in Uganda is not costly, and training a guard dog is easy. Dogs are "trained" to guard by keeping them in a small wooden box, often not big enough to stand up in or turn around, for about 18 hours a day. Usually the box has iron sheets for a roof, and under the African sun, it gets very hot in that small space. Sometimes a few dogs share one box. The dogs can see nothing outside the box-their world is the lifeless space of those few square feet.
During the day, there aren’t many stray dogs on Kampala’s streets. But at night, when they are released from their wooden crates, they may escape their compounds and meet at the rubbish heap to find some food. Rabies is a concern there, and loose dogs on the street may be stoned to death or poisoned—by an individual or sometimes by the City Council. Strychnine is the poison of choice, it is certainly not species specific, and children and other animals have been poisoned with baits set for dogs. It is a slow, painful death. 
Seeing a livestock truck travel from the west upon its entry into Kampala is never a pleasant sight. The large horned cattle, Ankoles, are tied to the trucks’ overhead bars by the horns and sometimes by their tails. But during the trip over rough roads, and also because of bad driving (and no concern for their cargo), the ropes slip down around the necks, and cattle are usually hanging in the back of the truck, gasping for breath. Sometimes they die along the route. The trucks have slatted sides, and with all the knocking around, their legs end up sticking out of the slats at odd angles, often breaking along the way. Then, when they arrive at the slaughterhouse, they are roughly offloaded, often dumped from the trucks because no ramp is available, and beaten as they move into the holding pen.
The USPCA then went above and beyond, and in partnership with the Government, and with WSPA and USPCA-raised funds, we instituted Animal Check Points along the main incoming roads from the west and north, the principal routes for livestock transport. A Veterinary Officer, a policeman, and often, a USPCA volunteer (Ibra Nsereko has most often taken this role) is at the checkpoint inspecting all livestock trucks that drive by. There have been arrests, fines, and slowly it is having an effect on how cattle are transported.