NGO advises farmers to use dogs to secure livestock and crops
GULU-The Big Fix Uganda, a nonprofit organisation that operates the only veterinary hospital in Northern Uganda has urged farmers in Acholi Sub-region to enlist the services of dogs in securing their livestock and crops from thieves who have become a threat in the area.
Annually, farmers in the subregion lose livestock and tons of crops especially Simsim to thieves who raid their homes and gardens.
Dr. Lawrence Opio, a resident veterinary doctor at Big Fix Uganda told this reporter in an interview this week that, “There is a benefit to having a dog because you can use dogs to herd animals once trained. The same skills they use to hunt an animal is the same skill they can use to bring an animal back to the kraal.”
Opio noted that dogs have been used for hunting for centuries and have no problem going into the bush when the need arises.
“Dogs that are trained to herd animals sometimes go into the bush alone and bring home the animals. Dogs follow instructions, all they need is training,” he said.
However, this comes at a time when the majority of households in Acholi Sub-region are facing food insecurity which has caused many to depend on just a meal a day.
But Opio said that food scarcity should not be an excuse to neglect dogs.
“It’s true people are experiencing a scarcity of food, but you should feed the animal [dog] the same way you feed yourself. If you have reduced your meals to once a day, let the dog also eat once a day and but don’t deny it food completely,” he said.
Susan Ayot, a social worker at the Big Fix Uganda’s Comfort Dog Project that is using dogs to treat trauma among people formerly abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA], said training a dog to do a task needs intensive work.
“For you to train a dog to do something, you need to be consistent and give positive rewards. Once you have trained the dog and it has understood the task well, it will never forget,” she said.
Bosco Komakech, a local farmer in Bungatira Sub County, Gulu district said he uses dogs to scare away goats from his cassava farms.
“I have trained my dogs to guard the cassava garden and they do the work well. My cassava is safe from being eaten by goats which like roaming during the dry season,” Komakech said.
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