Sorf and Lukman from the Wacpaw /Eyes on Animals Ghana-team attended the Vegan and Animal Advocacy Summit in Kenya last week, joining around 240 animal welfare and vegan advocates from across the globe.
They shared their efforts to prevent factory farming from taking permanent root in Ghana, emphasizing the importance of learning from the mistakes of wealthier Western countries, which are often driven by pressure from multinational agricultural corporations.
The team explained how WACPAW and EonA use ethology to educate Ghanaian farmers about the suffering of birds in overcrowded battery cages. They also highlighted the environmental harm of factory farming.
We assist Ghanaian farmers by building perches, nests, improving ventilation, and training them in upright chicken-catching methods. Five egg farmers in Ghana have already switched from battery cages to more humane deep litter aviary systems! Our work was met with praise, and we were encouraged to continue reducing the suffering of laying hens, the most abused animal in Ghana’s growing factory farming industry.
We also discussed our efforts to promote the humane stunning of animals before slaughter in Ghanaian abattoirs. We lease out free stunners to Ghana abattoirs, as such equipment is non existent in Ghana and even scarce across much of Africa. While some attendees questioned our focus on improving slaughter methods, saying it is not vegan to improve killing, we explained that without our intervention, animals would face even worse conditions and that is what the essence of “veganism” is all about – a kinder world for animals with less and less suffering.
Two organizations expressed interest in collaborating with us on upright poultry catching and improving slaughterhouse conditions in Uganda and Rwanda.
