Morris Darbo grew up under a different mantra. His parents taught him to love animals and care for them as you would any living being... and saw a link between people who were violent with animals and people who were violent with other people. He vowed to break that cycle.
CHRISTIAN COTRONEO: ‘For a long time in Liberia, when a dog bit someone, the consequences for all dog-kind were devastating. Mass killings — and not with euthanasia. No, you might not expect animal welfare to be a high priority in a nation ravaged by a decades-long civil war. Even today, the West African country is one of the poorest in the world. Why should cats and dogs or even goats get any kind of protection when violence is everywhere?
But Morris Darbo grew up under a different mantra. His parents taught him to love animals and care for them as you would any living being. Even as the region where he grew up, Lofa County, saw heavy fighting during the second civil war, Darbo saw a link between people who were violent with animals and people who were violent with other people. He vowed to break that cycle. Which is why when Darbo started advocating for better conditions for animals in Liberia, he looked first to the children…
And so, in 2000, he founded the Liberia Animal Welfare & Conservation Society (LAWCS) and, with just a handful of like-hearted volunteers, began offering animal education programs to local schools… Eventually, 35 schools would embrace the humane education programs designed by LAWCS, inspiring more than 27,000 children… He’s hoping to establish an education center that can draw people from across the country. And he dreams of inviting volunteers from abroad. “The dream is to one day cover the entire country. That’s what we are hoping to do”.’ SOURCE…
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