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ANIMALS
THE STRUGGLE
FOR SURVIVAL
By ALI A1-FADHILY with DAHR JAMAIL
in FALLUJAH
 AMIDST
THE huge and growing death toll, it has been easy to forget that
animals, in their own way, are finding it hard to survive in Iraq.
"Like human beings,
animals find it very hard to stay alive now," Dr. Sammy Hashim, a
veterinarian who lives and works west of Baghdad, between Fallujah and
the capital city, told IPS. "Naturally, no one cares for the poor
animals when nobody seems to care even for human beings under the
occupation."
Dr. Hashim said
animals cannot get basic needs. "Good drinking water, good feed, vet
care and medicines are all unavailable in Iraq since the U.S.
occupation of the country began in the spring of 2003. When we
complain to the government, they laugh at us, saying humans are first
priority."
Farmers seem to have
lost hope for the future of their animals. "We treat animals like our
own children," Hamdiya Alwan, 50-year-old widow of a farmer in the Abu
Ghraib area of western
Baghdad
told IPS. "We were brought up to treat animals in the best way
possible, but now it is getting very hard.
"It costs a lot to
keep a cow or a few sheep with prices of feed so high, and agriculture
in such bad shape. Of the six cows and 30 heads of sheep that we had
before my husband was killed in 2004, I only have one cow and four
heads of sheep now."
Chicken farm owners
have their own agonies. "It was good business, and a real support
during the times of the sanctions (the UN-imposed economic sanctions
on Iraq 1990-2003)," Hajji Jassim from the Saqlawiya area near
Fallujah, 60 km west of Baghdad told IPS. "The support (subsidies) we
got from our legitimate (previous) government was reflected in the
prices of chicken meat."
Jassim added, "Now it
is impossible to work, with no electricity and no support whatsoever.
This situation simply finished our business, and the government seems
not to care at all for such a great loss."
Some political leaders
see this too, as a part of a plan to ruin the Iraqi economy. "The U.S.
occupation has destroyed everything in Iraq, and this is part of the
comprehensive plan of destruction," a member of the al-Anbar
provincial council in Fallujah, speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the environment of fear, told IPS.
"The Americans could
have continued the support to farmers given by the former regime to
keep our farming industry running, but they deliberately stopped all
kinds of support in order to destroy it, just like they did with our
army and all the good things we had."
"Killing agriculture
and animal breeding is a great loss to the economy of Iraq," Youssif
Hussein, lecturer in economics at al-Anbar University in Ramadi, 105
km west of Baghdad, told IPS. "Considering the fact that Iraqi oil
will go into the pockets of American corporations, Iraqis should think
seriously of depending on farming and animal breeding for a long time
to come."
In her book 'The Shock
Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism', Canadian journalist and
author Naomi Klein wrote that the U.S. followed up its 'shock and awe'
bombing campaign with "shock therapy -- mass privatisation, complete
free trade, a 15 percent flat tax, a dramatically downsized
government." This policy has taken its toll on farms and the livestock
business.
Signalling worse to
come, the ministry of water resources announced May 22 that the
country is suffering from water shortages that could lead to
widespread drought.
"The shortage of rain,
which last winter was 30 percent of what it was in previous years, has
led to an obvious impact on water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates
and their tributaries," the ministry said.
Iraq's total water
store in reservoirs and lakes is currently 22.07 billion cubic metres,
down from the pervious year by 9.19 billion cubic metres, it said. And
like humans, animals will suffer as a consequence.
Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with
Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on
Iraq who
has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East
- IPS-Inter Press Service / Asia-Pacific
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