Transcriber: sarah akasha Reviewer: Jenny Lam-Chowdhury
I'm going to need your imagination, please.
Ready? Imagine a mother --
who didn't have that much in life --
A home? No. Money? Not much.
She did have one little thing --
but it is one great little thing.
She had a little child.
And it is this child that made her wake up everyday.
It is this child that helped her fight her daily struggles in life.
Imagine if this mother came home one day,
and found her child was not there.
Imagine a little boy, who is an orphan, -- Oh, that's really sad --
and he gets bullied by the kids everyday,
and he doesn't have any friends --
no one defends him, and he has no one to talk to.
That's really sad.
What if you knew someone who is going through something like this?
What would you do?
I'm sure everyone would want to reach a hand
and say, "I wanna help. I'm gonna help you", right?
Well, what if either of these characters was --
well, an animal... would you be as willing?
No, I'm afraid not as much --
Yeah, you're gonna tell me,
"Look, this is an animal, this is a person, there's a difference."
Yeah, there is a difference --
But, we know for a fact, that animals
are not ignorant of motherly love.
That animals do, in fact, feel the same despair,
the same terrible grief one [feels] when loosing one's children.
And, it is a fact, that animals do get bullied every single day.
And, they do, in fact, have no one to talk to
because... they can't!
So, if I stand up here and say,
"Please, be kind to animals, do this, do that..."
Are you going to say, "Don't do that", because animals are not like us? --
Well, they are like us.
There is one thing, though, they are not like us and is --
they can't defend themselves from what we are doing to them.
You see, whenever someone talks about animals, they do it as if they are --
well, a separate part, they are on their own --
they should be taking care of themselves.
Well, what if you knew that this fact isn't that true,
because the way we treat them, the way we see them,
what we do to them does not only affect them;
in fact, it affects all of our community.
Let me give you an example, please --
As you know, these lazy dogs lying under every car,
and (sigh) they are such a horrible sight -- I'm sure,
but the way the children do, and they stone them,
and they keep chasing them,
and taking their babies, and bullying them --
What's this going to do?
This, will make those animals feel defensive --
"A person, he's going to do something horrible, I got to attack!"
See? This is a danger to our little children, right?
But it is, in fact, our own doing.
As a veterinarian, I go to farms and people who keep animals --
You see, animals... animal raising is a big thing in our country --
In fact, before the separation of South Sudan,
livestock composed about 60% of our economy.
Now, I'm sure it's a lot bigger now,
so it's something really important.
So, people who keep animals when I go on a visit to a farm
and I see things like, people who crowd animals in too small places,
like chickens, a lot of chickens in one tiny cage!
So when I look at the person,
and I say: "Oh, please can you just give them some more space,
can you move some of them... move them out of here? " --
This is the attitude I get --
"More cost? No, I'm not going to do that.
No, I'm not going to do that because I don't really care about the chickens
or, what's going to happen to them
because I know I'm going to kill them, I'm going to eat them."
Yes, he does have some sense, yes, but --
What if this person knew that
overcrowding animals in a small space,
or not giving them the food that they need --
this will, in fact, be a great loss to you.
Because, what will happen is this --
This will put them under stress,
and this will make them vulnerable to disease,
and, one day, you are going to come home to your farm,
and this is what you're going to see --
a whole lot of dead animals.
Now, tell me where is the loss now?
You know what a "carro" is?
A cart. You know what a cart is, right?
This is a stupid question, because this is something we see everyday,
everywhere, literally in every street, donkeys everywhere.
So, these donkeys are, maybe the backbone of our country
and we don't even know that, because they transport things like,
building material, foods and vegetables from different markets,
so this is a really important part of our country.
What if we decided to take care of them? Let's see what's going to happen.
See, there's an inventor, and his name is Mr. James Hobble,
and he said: "Hm, I think the donkey driving this cart
may not be as comfortable as I think it should".
So, he redesigned it, and came up with this --
It looks pretty much the same, right?
Because it's made out of the same material,
but he did a little bit of tweaking... He adjusted the position of the wheels,
they are little bit to the front, and you see this square piece? He did it on purpose --
so the driver would have to sit a little bit to the back, so what did happen? --
This way, most of the weight is not on the animal's back, but on the wheels,
-- which is more humane, so all that is left for it to do now, is just to pull the cart,
simply, no carrying loads. (Applause)
This, greatly lessen the stress on the animal and, at the same time,
do you know that you can put 6, 8 times more weight on the cart.
Think what a difference this will make;
it will make even more hours and --
So, imagine what we did --
imagine if we apply this small principle in our economy --
According to a study that was published by an European commission --
They said that, if you try to apply animal welfare in the livestock industry,
the raise can be up to 17%. Think what a difference this will make!
So... No, animals are not a separate community!
They are, they will be, they are in fact, a genuine part of our community.
We should be one -- we should be one,
and we should act like one, and we should take care of each other.
Because this is a matter that we all want to do -- wanna be one.
So, let's help each other build this country;
let's help each other make a better Sudan.
Thank you. (Applause)