IN its quest to minimise the risk of rabies, the Livingstone City Council (LCC) from time to time, while working with the officers from the Zambia Police, raids the townships to rid them of stray, unconfined and unregistered dogs.
They do this by gunning them down, a phenomenon that does not sit well with Lynne Mandelsohn.
Who is she? Ms Mandelsohn is a youthful looking 53-year-old Scotland born dog lover who came to Livingstone from the United Kingdom in 2008.
Ideally, such a person that dedicates much of their time protecting animals would be expected to have some kind of training in animals or anything related to livestock. But no, that is not Ms Mandelsohn’s story.
In fact, she is a trained lawyer and political analyst. “I was lucky enough to go to a great high school in England where I also studied politics at Newcastle University,” she says.
After traveling, mostly around Asia and working for three years in the United Kingdom, Ms Mandelsohn decided to go back to school and studied law at the College of Law in England.
“I worked as a lawyer from 1993 until December 2006. I worked at a law firm called Masons [now Pinsent Masons], then Freshfields [now called Freshfields Brukhaus Deringer] which is one of the top law firms in the world,” she says.
After practicing law in England, Ms Mandelsohn then decided to go back to her native country, Scotland to take care of her elderly parents.
“While there, I joined a law firm called Shepherd & Wedderburn,” she says. “I was a partner at the law firm in Scotland and it specialised in contracts and disputes for big infrastructure projects (building roads, power stations, hospitals).”
In 2007, Ms Mandelsohn took a career break and travelled in Southern Africa - with Zambia being the first country she visited.
“I fell in love with the beauty of the people and the country so much that when I went back to work as a lawyer in 2008, my heart remained here and forced me to move back here permanently in October 2008.”
When she came to Zambia, she took over Zigzag Lodge, which she has been running since then, giving employment to 13 people.
Ms Mandelsohn who was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1967 also has a community based project called Mazuba Mabotu where she sponsors 120 children with education in Livingstone’s Ngwenya township.
“I like working in the community and helping people in many ways, especially in areas of education,” she says.
Other than that, through her love for animals, Ms Mandelsohn founded the Zambezi Animal Welfare Services (ZAWS) in 2014 and has to this date rescued over 260 dogs and 175 cats.
“Growing up, there were always animals at home. We had rats, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, name it. It was always normal to have animals around and I used to enjoy it,” she says. “The only animal I am scared of is cattle.”
Simply put, her love for animals, well except for maybe cattle, can be traced from childhood. “I don’t disagree with the council's way of handling the rabies situation for the sake of it. In fact, I agree with about 97 percent of the things and only disagree with the part where they inhumanly kill the stray dogs,” she says.
“Alternatively, as opposed to killing the dogs, I would rather the council which has a fast track court take these irresponsible dog owners to court and prosecute them for failing to take care of the dogs other than letting the dogs pay for the mistakes of their irresponsible masters.”
Sitting in a chair at her lodge, and stroking a cat that is sitting on her lap, Ms Mandelsohn says she cannot stand people who keep pets that they fail to take care of.
“The first dog I rescued was found somewhere near New Fairmount Hotel. Unfortunately, it died,” she recalls.
“Normally, because people know the kind of work I do, I get reports of dogs wandering. That is when I move in with my guys and get the dogs, give them shelter and try to get them as fit and healthy enough before people come and adopt them."
Among the people that help her with her work is Foster Sibbuyu, 25, and Semi Mvula, 26. They love helping her tending to the rescued dogs.
Ms Mandelsohn also recalls how she once rescued a dog that was strangled by the neck, left for dead, supposedly by its owner.
“The branch where the dog had been hanged broke and its neck was broken. That was my worst experience. How can someone be that cruel? It is very challenging emotionally when you see such cruelty. That day, I nearly cried,” she says.
She says people need a mindset change towards keeping pets. “It’s important to sensitise people and especially children on how to live with dogs and other animals generally,” she says. “When I see such cruelty on animals, it gives me an insight into how much more we have to do as a people.”
At some point, she had over 20 dogs and cats in her custody that hadn’t been adopted yet. “Having that large number means you have to spend a lot of money on feeding and vaccinating them. It’s not always a cheap endeavour, but luckily we get help and donations from well wishers,” she says.
Ms Mandelsohn intends to have a bigger place where people, especially children can interact freely with the animals.
Once the dogs are rescued, before they are adopted, they are sterilised for population control purposes and to reduce the number of stray dogs.
“Much as I disagree with the council shooting the dogs, I also don’t agree that people should irresponsibly keep their dogs. Let us all ensure that we follow the public health guidelines and confine these dogs within our yards,” says Ms Mandelsohn who still maintains her youthful look despite her age.
According to the LCC, the tourist capital has over three thousand dogs but only a paltry 182 are registered and vaccinated, as of May 18.
No comments:
Post a Comment