Wildlife Vet Dr Richard K Ssuna

Dr Richard K Ssuna: In His Own Words

Wildlife and Domestic Animal Vet, Conservationist, Animal Advocate


Bio: Dr Richard K. Ssuna

Dr Richard K. Ssuna has been caring for (wild and domesticated) animals as a Veterinarian for over 20 years. In the past he’s worked for the Uganda Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (USPCA), the Jane Goodall Institute and Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Wildlife Conservation Trust on Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary and the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre. Dr Ssuna also established the Lilongwe Society and Protection of Animals (LSPCA) and also worked as the technical advisor for the Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in Liberia. He is currently the Founder of All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust in Malawi, Lesotho and Uganda.

Over the years, Dr Ssuna has received many awards for animal welfare, and veterinary practice including:

  • The William Wilberforce Award in 2012.
  • The Africa Animal Advocate Award by Humane Society International (HSI) in 2014.
  • Special Recognition for Outstanding Leadership for Ngamba Island in 2018.
  • World Animal Day Ambassador for Malawi.

Along with a veterinary degree, Dr Ssuna holds a Masters of Science in Wild Animal Health (Royal Veterinary College, University of London) and a Masters of International Animal Welfare Ethics & Law (Royal School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh).

Dr Ssuna is an absolute inspiration to animal lovers and conservationists all over the world. It is an honour to showcase his work and stories on Palm Oil Detectives.

Respected #wildlife and #pet #vet @RichardSsuna talks about @africacreatures saving #animals in #Uganda #Lesotho #Malawi and also #palmoil #landgrabbing #animalrights and the #Boycott4Wildlife #Africa

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Dr Ssuna and an assistant help to save a dog in Lilongwe. Used with permission from Joseph Murphy https://www.josephmurphyphotography.com/new-page-3Dr Ssuna helps a leopard with arthritis.Dr Ssuna helps some chimp orphansDr Ssuna helps some chimp orphansThe team save a cat who has fractured her legDr Richard Kimera SsunaDr Richard Ssuna - wildlife and pet vet, animal advocateRichard helps a leopard with arthritisDr Ssuna helps a sick pythonRichard helps a leopard with arthritisHelping to vaccinate dogs against rabiesHelping dogs with rabies vaccinationsA dog getting a rabies vaccination - Dr Richard SsunaDr Richard Ssuna - wildlife and pet vet, animal advocateDr Richard Ssuna - wildlife and pet vet, animal advocateCommunity education about care for animals - Dr Richard Ssuna

Respected #wildlife and #pet #vet @RichardSsuna talks about @africacreatures saving #animals in #Uganda #Lesotho #Malawi and also #palmoil #landgrabbing #animalrights and the #Boycott4Wildlife #Africa

Tweet

‘Foreign #palmoil companies (RSPO members) have claimed the Kalangala Islands, Uganda for #palmoil. The locals have lost their food sources. I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife#Wildlife and #Pet Vet @RichardSsuna

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“In my view product certifications like @RSPOtweets when their operations adversely affect people, they are designed to cover-up an already messed-up industry.” #Wildlife #vet @RichardSsuna #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife

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The public has been hoodwinked into believing that @RSPOtweets #palmoil #certification equates to a sustainable product and as result, companies fetch even more cash for it” #Wildlife #vet @RichardSsuna #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife

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‘Please support All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust so we can help domestic and wild animals’ #wildlife and #pet #vet @RichardSsuna of @africacreatures #Boycott4Wildlife

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Chimps are very curious and they pay attention to detail

This is how it all started many years ago! Here I am examining one of the baby chimps at a sanctuary. Did you know that chimps appreciate veterinary care? Via Dr Richard Ssuna on Twitter

The beauty with being a wildlife-vet, is that you get to treat all sorts of animals

This leopard developed arthritis from a previous injury. This was her annual general health check. #Wildlife #Animals #AnimalWelfare #Africa @TheWildlifeHost @bigcatscom @Lupita_Nyongo

Originally tweeted by Richard Ssuna (@RichardSsuna) on August 16, 2021.

I used to be the Field Programs Officer and Veterinarian for the Jane Goodall Institute

This project was located in the richly forested areas of Bushenyi (Kalinzu) Hoima (Bulindi, Kitooba, Kaisotonya), Masindi and Kibaale (Kanyanchu).

dr richard ssuna

My organisation All Creatures Animal Welfare helps to keep animals and communities safe…

All Creatures was initially set up in Lilongwe in Malawi in 2016, we now have new sites in Lesotho and Uganda

We specialise in:

  • Mass rabies vaccinations: Rabies is a critical public health concern in Africa and has severe animal welfare and human health consequences.
  • Animal kindness education: We teach in schools and communities about the connection between animal welfare, environmental protection and human wellbeing.
  • Community Veterinary Services: Our free vet services including spaying and neutering, surgery and wildlife interventions.
  • Saving animals from disasters: Animals are often forgotten in natural disasters and pandemics and we are well equipped to save distressed and abandoned animals.
  • Animal Rescue Centre: We have a shelter in Lilongwe and care for abandoned and neglected dogs and other animals.
A dog getting a rabies vaccination - Dr Richard Ssuna

“We have successfully vaccinated 75% of all dogs against rabies in Mzuzu, and vaccinated and sterilised more than 80% dogs in Chintenche, Northern Malawi.”

When Malawi was hit with floods in 2019, we rescued, treated and vaccinated many animals

Photo: The Conversation Arjan van de Merwe/UNDP/Flickr


“We have rescued and treated many different species wildlife, for example: Vervet Monkeys, Bush Babies, Common Duikers and Olive Baboons.”

Dr Ssuna helping an injured bush babyDr Ssuna helping an injured bush baby.

All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust was set up to care not only for domestic pets, but wildlife too…

This has unfortunately been difficult to implement due to funding and the insurmountable challenges of animal welfare issues for domestic animals. You can help us to help more animals by donating…

Donate via Paypal

Photo by Dalida Innes Wildlife Photography

I helped to rescue baby chimps who have lost their mothers to traps laid by cocoa farmers in Kitooba

Chimpanzee Pan troglodytesChimpanzee Pan troglodytesDr Ssuna helps some chimp orphansDr Ssuna helps some chimp orphans

I’ve seen first-hand the poaching of baby chimps and the destruction of chimp habitat for cocoa while I was working at The Jane Goodall Institute

~ Dr Richard Ssuna

Indiscriminate traps were usually intended for bush pigs and yellow baboons and laid by local farmers. They are a common affliction to wild chimp populations in West Uganda. The chimps use private forest patches as movement corridors to access their natural habitats. This below was Masindi, 20 years ago!

Originally tweeted by Richard Ssuna (@RichardSsuna) on August 12, 2021.

The other culprit was British American Tobacco

They invested heavily in communities and tobacco farmers planted on deforested forest patches! Both activities adversely affected chimps, as their travel routes through community forests were cut off and some small unviable groups were isolated in small forest fragments.


Globally, deforestation of equatorial forests for palm oil has affected carbon sinks and has resulted in more global warming

~ Dr Richard Ssuna

Kalangala Islands, Uganda

“Foreign companies and RSPO members have claimed the land for palm oil. The local inhabitants of the island suffered from the brute destruction of the island’s forests and their loss of livelihood and food sources.

“This can easily be extrapolated to inform similar misdeeds elsewhere on the African continent. This also affected peoples livelihoods and many of these people became landless.”


The Kalangala Islands are a renowned birders destination. Now, with forest destruction, this pristine bird-haven has been adversely affected and destabilised. All in the interest of a few greedy businessmen!

~ Dr Richard Ssuna

virgin forest in Uganda https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-xfzmlResearch: Palm Oil Deforestation and its connection to retail brands[Before] Forested area in Uganda, PxFuel. [After] Fire on a palm oil plantation, Greenpeace.

The global impact of palm oil on various facets of our lives is immoral

Palm oil is driven primarily by greed and profit at the expense of both mankind, the animal kingdom and our planet.

https://twitter.com/RichardSsuna/status/1427171099595390978?s=20

https://twitter.com/RichardSsuna/status/1426669428977160195?s=20

https://twitter.com/RichardSsuna/status/1427365295249772577?s=20

https://twitter.com/RichardSsuna/status/1424973222454382592?s=20

https://twitter.com/RichardSsuna/status/1385716733340758020?s=20

Excerpt, The Guardian UK: Ugandan farmers take on palm oil giant Wilmar over land grab claims

Before the bulldozers came, Magdalena Nakamya harvested coffee, cassava, avocado and jackfruit on her three-hectare (seven-acre) plot on Kalangala, an island in Lake Victoria.

But on a July morning in 2011, Nakamya, 64, awoke to find yellow machines churning up her land and razing the crops she had grown in a bid to make way for palm oil plantations.

Farmers evicted from their land by RSPO member Wilmar in the Kalangala Islands on Lake Victoria

“No one came to talk to me before they destroyed my crops,” says Nakamya. “I heard that some people were given money, but I didn’t receive anything.”

Read more: The Guardian UK

https://twitter.com/nbstv/status/1523006629280874496?s=20&t=Q5GqJQOdD1hOEnS_0rNR2g

https://twitter.com/DvOijen/status/1513496609514045448?s=20&t=bqpCdBf0IQ6JeOo3MBnfIw


Landgrabbing for palm oil in Uganda by ‘If Not Us Then Who?’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm3FW1nTRMs

In my view all or most product certifications especially whose operations adversely affect people, are designed to cover-up an already messed-up palm oil industry.

Dr Richard Ssuna

“In my view product certifications like @RSPOtweets when their operations adversely affect people, they are designed to cover-up an already messed-up industry.” #Wildlife #vet @RichardSsuna #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife

Tweet

https://youtu.be/17QxF61PVC4

Read more: Friends of the Earth and ‘If Not Us, Then Who?’

I think the real hope sits with governments

The political will of governments – provided they are not compromised by kickbacks or other financial interests from global brands, provides the best opportunity to address this problem of deforestation for food, at least on a national level.

“In a real sense, the public has been hoodwinked into believing that a palm oil certification equates to a more sustainable product and as result, companies fetch even more cash for it”

~ Dr Richard Ssuna


The public has been hoodwinked into believing that @RSPOtweets #palmoil #certification equates to a sustainable product and as result, companies fetch even more cash for it” #Wildlife #vet @RichardSsuna #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife

Tweet

In ten years there will be no more African animals. All gone. Extinct. The window for transformation of our food system is closing rapidly!

Four things consumers can do to stop deforestation for food ingredients…

1. Raise awareness of brands that are using greenwashing to sell products and are destroying the environment and causing tropical deforestation or emptying our oceans.

2. Consume alternative products, made locally and not coming from deforestation.

3. Publicly condemn these brands causing deforestation, whenever and wherever there is a platform, with family and friends and even on social media.

4. Make reference to this issue and to the #Boycott4Wildlife movement, whenever any adverse climatic changes are suffered as a result of deforestation for food.

African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotisAfrican Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotisPygmy Hippopotamus Choeropsis liberiensis GIFWestern Lowland Gorilla Gorilla gorilla

Please support All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust so we can help domestic and wild animals

We have faced insurmountable challenges in recent years. Your donation will support us to help more animals

Donate via Paypal
Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on supermarket brands causing palm oil deforestation

Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on supermarket brands causing palm oil deforestation

Find out more

#Africa #animalrights #animals #AnimalWelfare #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #certification #ChimpanzeePanTroglodytes #conservation #CreativesForCoolCreatures #DrRichardSsuna #investigativeJournalism #journalism #landgrabbing #Lesotho #Malawi #PalmOil #palmoil #pet #Uganda #vet #wildlife #wildlifeVet

Stop Gambling Our Future for Meat Deforestation

Renowned animal rights ethicist philosopher Peter Singer asserts that our dietary choices, particularly our consumption of meat and dairy, are jeopardising the Earth’s future. These industries contribute significantly to environmental degradation, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions, intensifying the impacts of climate change. By indulging in hamburgers and other meat-based products, we are not only compromising our health but also the wellbeing of our planet. For a more sustainable and compassionate future, consider boycotting meat and dairy. Choose to be vegan for the animals and to save our planet #Boycottmeat be #vegan #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/ge4S2oHF5oY

Eating #meat 🥩 and #dairy 🥛is jeopardising the earth’s future says renowned #animalrights advocate Peter Singer. If you want to fight #climatechange 💚🌳🙏 be #vegan for the #animals 🐵 🦏 and planet 🌏 #Boycottmeat #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2024/05/05/peter-singer-we-are-gambling-with-the-future-of-our-planet-for-the-sake-of-hamburgers/

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Famous #animalrights ethicist Peter Singer links eating of #dairy and #meat to carbon emissions. If you want to fight #climatechange you should be #vegan! #Boycottmeat and dairy for the #animals 🐷🐍🐘💚 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2024/05/05/peter-singer-we-are-gambling-with-the-future-of-our-planet-for-the-sake-of-hamburgers/

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Originally published by The Conversation June 15, 2023 and republished here under the Creative Commons Licence, read original.


Peter Singer, Princeton University

I wasn’t aware of climate change until the 1980s — hardly anyone was — and even when we recognised the dire threat that burning fossil fuels posed, it took time for the role of animal production in warming the planet to be understood.

Today, though, the fact that eating plants will reduce your greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most important and influential reasons for cutting down on animal products and, for those willing to go all the way, becoming vegan.

Singer - We are gambling with the future of our planet for hamburgers

A few years ago, eating locally — eating only food produced within a defined radius of your home — became the thing for environmentally conscious people to do, to such an extent that “locavore” became the Oxford English Dictionary’s “word of the year” for 2007.

If you enjoy getting to know and support your local farmers, of course, eating locally makes sense. But if your aim is, as many local eaters said, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you would do much better by thinking about what you are eating, rather than where it comes from. That’s because transport makes up only a tiny share of the greenhouse gas emissions from the production and distribution of food.

With beef, for example, transport is only 0.5% of total emissions. So if you eat local beef you will still be responsible for 99.5% of the greenhouse gas emissions your food would have caused if you had eaten beef transported a long distance. On the other hand, if you choose peas you will be responsible for only about 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions from producing a similar quantity of local beef.

And although beef is the worst food for emitting greenhouse gases, a broader study of the carbon footprints of food across the European Union showed that meat, dairy and eggs accounted for 83% of emissions, and transport for only 6%.

More generally, plant foods typically have far lower greenhouse gas emissions than any animal foods, whether we are comparing equivalent quantities of calories or of protein. Beef, for example, emits 192 times as much carbon dioxide equivalent per gram of protein as nuts, and while these are at the extremes of the protein foods, eggs, the animal food with the lowest emissions per gram of protein, still has, per gram of protein, more than twice the emissions of tofu.

Singer - We are gambling with the future of our planet for hamburgers

Animal foods do even more poorly when compared with plant foods in terms of calories produced. Beef emits 520 times as much per calorie as nuts, and eggs, again the best-performing animal product, emit five times as much per calorie as potatoes.

Favourable as these figures are to plant foods, they leave out something that tilts the balance even more strongly against animal foods in the effort to avoid catastrophic climate change: the “carbon opportunity cost” of the vast area of land used for grazing animals and the smaller, but still very large, area used to grow crops that are then fed — wastefully, as we have seen — to confined animals.

Because we use this land for animals we eat, it cannot be used to restore native ecosystems, including forests, which would safely remove huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. One study has found that a shift to plant-based eating would free up so much land for this purpose that seizing the opportunity would give us a 66% probability of achieving something that most observers believe we have missed our chance of achieving: limiting warming to 1.5℃.

Singer - We are gambling with the future of our planet for hamburgers

Another study has suggested that a rapid phaseout of animal agriculture would enable us to stabilise greenhouse gases for the next 30 years and offset more than two-thirds of all carbon dioxide emissions this century. According to the authors of this study:

The magnitude and rapidity of these potential effects should place the reduction or elimination of animal agriculture at the forefront of strategies for averting disastrous climate change.

Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest environmental issue facing us today, but it is not the only one. If we look at environmental issues more broadly, we find further reasons for preferring a plant-based diet.

Smoky landscape photo, fire consumed land recently deforested by cattle farmers near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil.Fires in the Amazon and linked to cattle ranching. Andre Penner/AP Photo

The clearing and burning of the Amazon rainforest means not only the release of carbon from the trees and other vegetation into the atmosphere, but also the likely extinction of many plant and animal species that are still unrecorded.

This destruction is driven largely by the prodigious appetite of the affluent nations for meat, which makes it more profitable to clear the forest than to preserve it for the indigenous people living there, establish an ecotourism industry, protect the area’s biodiversity, or keep the carbon locked up in the forest. We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet for the sake of hamburgers.

Joseph Poore, of the University of Oxford, led a study that consolidated a huge amount of environmental data on 38,700 farms and 1,600 food processors in 119 countries and covered 40 different food products. Poore summarised the upshot of all this research thus:

A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Poore doesn’t see “sustainable” animal agriculture as the solution:

Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.

Those who claim to care about the wellbeing of human beings and the preservation of our climate and our environment should become vegans for those reasons alone.

Doing so would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution, save water and energy, free vast tracts of land for reforestation, and eliminate the most significant incentive for clearing the Amazon and other forests.


This is an edited extract from Animal Liberation Now by Peter Singer (Penguin Random House).

Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics in the Center for Human Values, Princeton University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Originally published by The Conversation June 15, 2023 and republished here under the Creative Commons Licence, read original.

ENDS


Read more about human health, veganism, nutrition and why you should #Boycottpalmoil, #Boycottmeat for your own and the planet’s health

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Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

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