The animal-lovers of Mauritius seek your help in putting an end to the continued abuse of animals by The Mauritian Society for Animal Welfare, and to appeal for reform to The Animal Welfare Act (2013).
“MSAW has sadly become a slaughterhouse run by monsters, a concentration camp for both cats and dogs.” [Shakeel Mohammed, lawyer, December 2020]
“A figure on the annual funding of MSAW? It is also often pointed out that there is interference or even a waste of funds within the organisation?” [Question by L’Express newspaper to Didier Pursun, newly appointed President of
“I won’t say ANYTHING about funding.” [Answer by Didier Pursun, President of MSAW]
This pack is being sent to International media outlets and International Animal Welfare bodies. We request that you intervene to highlight the rapidly worsening atrocities happening here in Mauritius, and do all possible to encourage our Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth, and the Minister in charge of Animal Welfare, Maneesh Gobin, to bring forth immediate and remedial reform to our Animal Welfare Act (2013); which is totally unfit for purpose.
The Act needs to be reformed immediately to prevent any further suffering to the tens of thousands of innocent canine and feline lives here. The Attorney General of Mauritius, Maneesh Gobin, holds Ministerial governance over law enforcement in a country where his very own Animal Welfare entity, MSAW, is continually and inhumanely contravening The Animal Welfare Act.
Attached is an open letter from the animal lovers of Mauritius to the newly appointed President of MSAW, Mr Didier Pursun. Following on from this are translated versions of recent self-explanatory press articles from here on our so-called ‘paradise’ island. Links to each of these respective articles are offered also. In addition, the images attached are stills from video taken inside MSAW’s own pounds in the last quarter of 2020. These videos have not been released to the general public as yet.
Since these disturbing images of neglect and abuse have been released, MSAW’s only reaction has been to deny such treatment and conditions, and to question its staff in an internal inquiry to establish who at MSAW took these damning videos. They have NOT launched an investigation into the inactions of their staff or their board members. There has been no mention of reprimanding or prosecuting their own staff for gross-misconduct, negligence, or animal cruelty, where so obviously this has been the case among all the ranks there, board members included.
The public are repeatedly told by MSAW officials and Maneesh Gobin that there is nothing to see at MSAW, or indeed anything unsavoury to learn about them. The images of what goes on behind these ‘concentration camp’ walls speak for themselves, and sit in complete contradiction to all that the government have to say regarding animal welfare here.
We see the only hope for change being reform to the Animal Welfare Act (2013). This Act was put in place in line with the closure of the Mauritian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) because of accusations of animal abuse and the illegal treatment of animals.
The Animal Welfare Act (2013) was also written to see in the creation of MSAW, a similar government-funded body-corporate as MSPCA before it, and one that has not justified public purse expenditure since its inception 8 years ago. There has been zero financial transparency since 2005, including both MSPCA and MSAW’s trading periods. Ex-employees have also testified towards high levels of corruption and the misuse of funds within the institution. As we have no Freedom of Information Act here, it is proving difficult to see how much public-purse funding has passed through MSAW’s hands, or indeed where any of it has been allocated.
MSAW also operates with a board of members who are nameless. This, to the best of our knowledge, is the only government-funded Animal Welfare entity in the World that operates in complete secrecy and with no accountability to the tax-paying public. The last 16 years have passed with no financial accounts put forward by either MSPCA or MSAW. As you can see from the press articles attached, there have been claims of corruption against MSAW, not only now, but against them and the MSPCA for many years previously. It is disgraceful that this has been endorsed and defended by Maneesh Gobin, the current Prime Minister, and by all successive governments for a very long time.
Under Mauritian laws, euthanasia must be practiced by a qualified veterinarian. The MSAW has not been employing any Veterinarian since September 2020. There is no information on who has been practising euthanasia and in which conditions these have been practised. A substance designed to minimise the suffering of the animal during euthanasia is also currently not available in Mauritius. We hence suspect that euthanasia is not being practiced in a lawful manner. A video released by the UK’s Daily Mail in 2015 showed dogs being punctured in the heart with lethal injections by dog-handlers, and NOT vets!
Worse still, no access is now granted to Animal Welfare NGOs and the public are unable to visit without leaving their mobile phones, camera or any other device behind, so hence MSAW operate in complete opacity. Yet this behaviour and these practices are being endorsed and defended by Maneesh Gobin, our nation’s Attorney General. Mr Gobin is also Minister of Agro Industry and Food Security, the ministry under which Animal Welfare falls. Queries from Animal Welfare NGOs, activists and rescuers only meet with inertia, lies or cover-ups on the part of the Ministry, Animal Welfare Unit and MSAW itself.
