Sir Roger Gale
Member of Parliament for Herne Bay and Sandwich (including West Thanet)
Sir Roger Gale MP launches British charity’s new animal centre for children in Ethiopia
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North Thanet`s MP, Sir Roger Gale, visited Ethiopia recently to open a new animal handling centre for schoolchildren, built and run by British animal charity SPANA (the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad).
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Sir Roger officially opened the new facility in his role as chairman of SPANA, a charity which provides free veterinary treatment to working animals in developing countries across the world, as well as running education programmes to improve animal welfare in the long term.
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The animal handling centre will give thousands of children the opportunity to see and handle animals, helping to foster feelings of compassion and respect towards them. Developing empathy for animals at a young age is important, as many of the children will, as adults, rely on working animals - such as horses and donkeys - for their livelihoods.
To mark the opening, Sir Roger planted a tree at the centre during a ceremony that was attended by more than 140 Ethiopian teachers, headmasters and government officials, as well as children from the 40 schools that will initially benefit from using the facility.
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Sir Roger, who also saw one of SPANA’s mobile veterinary clinics in action treating working animals during the trip, said: “It was a privilege to visit Ethiopia for the first time to launch SPANA’s animal handling facility and to see the charity’s crucial work in the country first-hand. The new centre will have an extremely important and positive long-term impact, improving animal welfare by changing attitudes and helping future generations to develop strong compassion for animals.”
Jeremy Hulme, chief executive of SPANA, said: “We would like to thank Sir Roger for launching our new facility. The centre will complement the veterinary treatment we provide to working animals by helping improve the condition of animals in the future. Working animals do the jobs of tractors, trucks and taxis throughout the developing world and are relied upon by many of the world’s poorest people for their livelihoods, and sometimes their survival. Without SPANA, there would simply be no veterinary treatment available for so many of these animals however.”
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