Vets in the Disaster Zone

This could be the most powerful typhoon ever to hit land.

Roads have become rivers, vehicles swallowed up by the rising waters.

On November 8th 2013,

Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in Southeast Asia.

It brought winds of over 230mph

and a huge storm surge over five metres high.

This programme contains contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

In just 16 hours, the typhoon beat a deadly 25-mile-wide path

right across the country's central islands.

More than 6,000 people were killed and four million left homeless,

triggering a massive humanitarian aid operation.

The disaster made news around the world, but behind the headlines,

there's another untold story.

In a country where a third of the population rely on farming to survive,

millions of animals were also affected by the typhoon.

I'm Michael Mosley, and I've come to the Philippines

in the aftermath of Haiyan to follow a unique team of vets.

COW GRUNTS

PIG SQUEALS

They fly into the world's worst disaster zones,

from droughts to floods, from earthquakes to tsunamis.

Go and check house by house how many animals so we can strategise.

The vet's goal is not only to rescue animals...

See you in the field, bye-bye.

..but to turn this disaster into an opportunity

to improve animal welfare in the long-term.

I think you've done a splendid thing here. I think you're doing a really good thing here.

Thank you.

I want to see exactly what happens when the team deliver emergency aid

and discover how the innovative methods they bring...

They're surprisingly effective.

..could save the lives of many animals and the people who depend on them...

I don't know how to, how to stand again.

..the next time a disaster strikes.

The typhoon did a great deal of damage,

but it could, in the end, do a great deal of good.

The team first arrived in the Philippines four days after Typhoon Haiyan hit.

They work for the World Society for the Protection of Animals,

a charity which funds an international network

of specialist vets.

Then they said, "Yes," you know, "we don't have much to eat."

They continually monitor the world for potential disasters.

This is New Washington,

which looks now like an atomic bomb dropped on them.

We've got a clear roll-out over more than a period of three days there.

James Sawyer is director of Global Disaster Management.

When a disaster strikes, we'll try and assess what the animal need is.

I will make a decision within 12 hours as to whether

we should deploy a team to go and have a look at that situation,

and our teams normally get there within four days.

The surprising thing about Cyclone Haiyan was that, er,

it was looking like a kind of pretty medium-grade cyclone

and then became a superstorm, so we had 24 hours' notice, really,

of how bad it was going to be.

The charity has spent 50 years working in disaster zones,

so their vets have a well-practised system for delivering aid.

The team first make a rapid assessment of animal health.

You can prepare, you can equip yourself, you can...you can

be confident about your experience,

but what you find on the ground is different every single time.

There is no milk here.

After identifying the worst-hit areas,

they go from village to village setting up mobile clinics to

treat as many animals as possible.

Even animals which aren't badly injured by the immediate impact

of a disaster can quickly die as a result of secondary infections,

lack of shelter, food or clean water.

The pressure on their time is immense.

One, two, three, go.

'It's hot, sweaty, dirty, hard work, long hours,

'there's always one more animal.'

Just as you're packing up the van,

someone appears with another chicken or another cow.

James' team each have a vital role to play.

Turn around.

Lead vet Juan Carlos Murillo...

Yeah, it's OK.

..has spent more than 20 years travelling from one disaster to the next.

Wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis...

wherever they send me,

wherever they request me to be, I'll be there.

And they're coming from that farm, the survivors?

Head of this operation is Gerardo Huertas.

He decides where the team focuses its efforts.

When we land in the places, it's usually been ravaged by nature,

it's always in a mess, it's always chaos, and we need to put together

something that makes sense inside that chaos.

So if you need additional medication, just let me know.

Cynthia Dias, the newest member of the team, is in charge of logistics.

The sense of emergency you have in every disaster actually

keeps you alive, and the faster you move, the more animals you reach.

The team is one of two dispatched by the charity to the Philippines,

a vast archipelago of over 7,000 islands.

Following an appeal from the local government,

they're focusing their efforts on the island of Panay.

Roughly half the size of Wales, it has a population of four million.

Panay was kind of forgotten as an island.

It's quite agricultural, people's livelihoods

and their futures are absolutely woven into the lives of animals.

Today, the vets are working in a remote coastal village.

When the typhoon swept through here,

it devastated the local fishing industry.

70% of the fishing boats here have been destroyed,

that makes them more reliant on the animals, not less.

Cos fishing boats cost money to build, especially ones with engines.

Tens of millions of Filipinos rely on animals for their livelihood.

-We only have time for two things - one is the goats at the end...

-OK.

..and I know the pigs cannot come here, so we'll go to see the pigs.

OK.

The people have their chickens with them right now.

Right now? Perfect.

Let's quickly split out what we need.

The vets treat urgent cases first,

then work through each species one at a time.

He has tracheitis, which is a swelling of the trachea.

And it's difficult for him to breathe, so we will provide some

long-action antibiotic so the animal can breathe better.

Sorry, buddy.

Super Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, killed more than

six million animals. Those that were badly injured didn't last long.

'Those animals that could not recover by themselves, then the owners,

'to avoid losing the whole animal,'

they then sell the animal or take the animal to the abattoir to

be slaughtered and take advantage at least of the meat.

The vet's initial aim is to prevent animals which survived the typhoon

from falling sick and dying.

THEY CONVERSE IN OWN LANGUAGE

The drugs in their mobile medical kits are based on years of experience.

-How much?

-We will have half a cc.

Those animals, like people when they're...when they get stressed,

their immune system will drop and it'll make them more susceptible

to infection, so we do carry and administer a lot of antibiotics.

OK, we have a wound here.

Yeah, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory, please.

Parasites find it easier to infect weakened animals,

so the team carry deworming medicine.

I will use a dewormer too, because there are also parasites

on the skin, and finally, she needs more vitamins to get better.

This is painful, please hold.

To combat the effects of malnutrition,

they administer multivitamins and minerals.

It might sound kind of simple and straightforward,

but the combination of those... of those drugs and treatments really

do make a huge difference to animals in the aftermath of a disaster.

After typhoons and other disasters, the spread of disease is

a major concern, so the vets must follow strict biosecurity protocols.

We're obviously very concerned about zoonotic diseases,

ones that spread between animals and people.

In floods, we quite often see outbreaks of leptospirosis,

bird flu, swine flu,

and they are quite significant public health concerns.

And, of course, Asia is the birthplace, really, of those.

Ready for the next!

The animals here are a vital part of the economy.

Elmer Dayo is a father of three

who relies on a single pig for his children's education.

PIG SQUEALS

A new... A new syringe, please.

-With vitamins?

-Yes, please. Thank you.

SQUEALING CONTINUES

This is normal behaviour, vocalisation,

high vocalisation, so we are not harming them.

We use the neck because, for ham production purposes,

we cannot harm the legs, so that we use the neck.

TRANSLATION:

That's all they have left. They don't have any homes,

their boats are broken and, er, if they ever have a chance,

their kids have a chance to go to school,

it's because of the little savings they have in their pigs.

They know exactly what the pigs are for, chickens are for,

the goats are for -

we're talking First Communion, going to school, getting married.

Cows are for hospital costs.

It's all so interrelated.

You lose a pig, you lose a child going to school.

You lose an opportunity for the country's individuals

and communities to improve, to further their lives and have

aspiration to have maybe many of the things that we want as well.

After treating 9,000 animals in three weeks,

the vets are today on their way to see a farmer,

one amongst a million affected by the typhoon.

This is Jeniffer Inamarga,

whose farm supports her extended family of 14.

It's also a major source of eggs and meat for the local community.

Before the typhoon, she had 37 pigs and over 1,000 chickens.

Now, she is left with very little.

I need your help.

We will do our best.

-Almost everything is gone.

-Yes.

I don't know how to...

how to...how to stand again.

And it's very... You know, it's very sad to say...

You are... You are in our country, you help us, but...

No, don't worry about us, don't worry.

The people around, there is no... No-one help us.

That's why I am very thankful to you, you, all of you.

We will do our best to help, seriously.

She's lost pretty much everything,

I mean, other than one group of kind of poultry that we're going to help.

You don't just get a whole new bunch of pigs and chickens overnight,

and, you know, it's...the breeding and things like that.

You know, we have to get on with doing what we do,

and there's still some animals still alive here.

It is quite an upsetting experience at times.

For a lot of us, it's just nice to get home and play with the kids,

things like that, you know.

The team can, on this occasion, do little,

and soon they head off to other disaster zones.

-Thank you very much.

-You're welcome, don't worry.

But they plan to return, and when they do, they will use

Jeniffer's farm to test out a novel idea,

one that could have a major impact

on the lives of animals throughout the Philippines.

It's three months now since Typhoon Yolanda and I'm on my way to meet up

with the vets who are all arriving from different parts of the world.

They have done stage one of their mission, which was relief.

Now they're moving on to stage two

which, in many ways, is harder - recovery.

I trained as a doctor and I've seen the emergency services

at work in warzones, but I'm very curious to find out

what emergency vets do,

and the unusual challenges they face here in the Philippines.

I also have a personal connection to this place.

My father worked in Manila when I was a child,

and I spent my early years here.

This will be my first trip back since I was five.

-Have you met?

-No, we haven't.

This is Jeniffer.

'I'm joining the vets team who are back at Jeniffer's ruined farm

'to take the first steps in a new project.'

So did you have a bulldozer or was this dug out by hand?

By hand, we are doing it a primitive way!

THEY LAUGH

We are moving on from that immediate phase to now

looking at the kind of longer term "build back better" work,

looking at the next one rather than the last one.

The recent super typhoon has created the chance to try something

completely new to the Philippines.

For those people who get hit by typhoons and hurricanes,

we just need to help them reduce their vulnerabilities.

Coming time after time to pick up the broken plates, it's sad.

That's just not a good idea.

A section of Jeniffer's land has been cleared, and construction

is under way on a group of new buildings designed by Gerardo.

His aim is to make this place

the first typhoon-proof farm in the country.

The scheme consists of a pig pen and two underground animal shelters -

one for pigs and one for chickens.

The biggest problem is designing it in such a way the wind

doesn't come in underneath and lift the whole thing up, is that right?

We hoist it up, so the plan is to put on bamboo slats on top of it.

So it's going to be what we call a weight,

and the side of it will be covered with soil so no wind will go in.

This shelter is based on a large trench covered by a low roof

constructed from natural materials.

'We saw it first in Cuba, the underground shelters.'

The most important concept there is to keep a really low profile

on the roofs so the winds do not pick on them.

'Gerardo has adapted the original concept. His design can be built

'with skills and materials available in the Philippines.'

Everything is made out of local materials.

All they really need is a bit of wire there, the odd nail and hammer.

HAMMERING

And I guess that's the point. They're trying to create something

here which they can test, which could be built anywhere by anybody.

'Jeniffer's main source of income came from breeding,

'fattening and selling her pigs for slaughter. Now she has none.'

The piglets, when they are small, we put them there, in there.

Right, right. And the roof was all ripped off by the typhoon, was it?

Yes, the piglets are all dead.

Surprisingly, half the animals lost in this kind of disaster

die in the hours AFTER the storm has passed.

Of course, it's really important for pigs to have shade.

So, at the moment, this was all ripped off.

Even the pigs that survived would have succumbed to heat stress

-really, really quickly.

-Yeah.

And if you think about how hot concrete gets in the sun, you know...

Yes, no, quite.

..it got pretty ugly pretty quickly here for the pigs, I think.

So, Gerardo and his team have come up with a novel way of protecting

the roof from future typhoons.

They have designed a pig pen with a detachable roof which can be

stowed away during the storm and replaced when it's over.

So the bolts come out and, what, it just slides into two parts smoothly?

No, no... Yes, two parts, but I want to divide it in four parts

-so it's easier to bring down.

-Yeah.

Once you take the bolts, it's going to slide...

Yeah, the roof will slide like that.

Has this actually been tested out in a typhoon before?

Erm, no. We've never found a location like this where we know

and pretty much guarantee that this stuff will be tested.

Unfortunately, they are short of time.

The team have a week to complete the shelter and restock it with animals.

If they succeed, this project will revive Jeniffer's livelihood.

But, even more important, it will be the prototype for a pioneering way

of safeguarding animals that could be spread across the country.

If it works, it's, erm, it's big.

It's very good...if it works.

Pigs are the most economically important animals

in the Philippines.

They are also one of the most vulnerable to storms.

Building back the population is key to recovery.

We're very keen, where restocking has to happen, for it to

focus on local breeders and local breeds,

because they're more likely to survive in those conditions.

I'm off to see one of the local university vets

who's doing his bit to restore pig numbers to pre-typhoon levels.

12 million, to be exact.

We're off to pick up some pig sperm.

The local population of pigs crashed after the typhoon,

partly because a large number of them died and partly

because the stress of the typhoon meant that their reproduction levels

have gone right down. So the local university are inseminating,

a lot of artificial insemination going on.

Not something I've ever seen before.

Morning.

Hello, sir. Good morning, good morning, good morning.

'Dr Cannoy, a vet from Aklan State University,

'specialises in artificial insemination.

-The pigs are around the back, are they?

-Yes.

'Since the typhoon, demand has soared.'

-Whoa, blimey! Wow, he is large!

-Yes!

'The boar is five years old and weighs 400 kilos.'

-It's really dangerous.

-Oh, you...!

-Just a little bit...

That's an impressive pair of testicles.

Really never seen anything quite like it before in my life.

HE LAUGHS

-Can you please, for a while, just stay there, yes?

-Step back, yes.

Yes, back here. Yes, up, up, up, up, up.

He's going to get it on that metal thing, but what happens next?

It boggles my imagination.

Right...

'Extracting sperm from a boar is a tricky process.'

Can we get closer?

Yeah, I have to do this.

BOAR GRUNTS

Oh, you're a brave man. I'm not sure I'd be volunteering for this.

It's a bit like milking a cow, isn't it?

Here we go.

It's concentrated.

How are you doing over there?

He seems very calm now. He's got a sort of sleepy look to him.

Looks a bit like Jeremy Clarkson from this direction. Satisfied.

..And I squeeze bottle.

'He is preparing the sperm for insemination -

'30 bottles for 30 sows.'

How many piglets would that produce, perhaps?

Um, average of...ten.

-Ten? Wow.

-Yeah.

With ten offspring per bottle,

the boar could father 300 piglets today. Impressive.

From the sperm, you can already determine the strength

or the weakness of the offspring.

They're a kind of different shape to human sperm.

The head is much bigger in human sperm.

Yeah, yeah, and the tail is short, but this one, it's so slender.

Everything from the top up to the tail.

Right, interesting, yes.

This one, you can really see the strength.

Yeah, every one a winner.

This boar's sperm is destined for hundreds of small farms

across the region who have requested it for their remaining sows.

In pigs, artificial insemination has an amazing 98% success rate.

How do you know when you're in the right place?

You have to twist and lift side direction.

Dr Cannoy is one of many doing this work.

It's the most efficient way of getting farms without piglets

back in business.

I'm beginning to appreciate the deep impact the typhoon has had,

particularly amongst the remoter communities

rarely touched by disaster relief.

To reach these places,

the charity has begun the other main strand of its mission here.

'Tomorrow, the team will start training local Filipino vets

'in emergency work. Tonight, they are preparing the equipment.'

It's for vitamins.

Why does it all end up in your room, Cynthia?

There is a lot of work in behind that needs to be done,

and if you make one little mistake, it can delay the whole day.

So I stay up till late and then when I get back home,

I'm just going to sit and relax and sleep for two days.

Cynthia is putting medicines into backpacks that will allow

local vets to treat animals in isolated communities.

-So the idea is the vets will all wear one of these, will they?

-Yes.

Remember, we're deploying,

so we need to get ourselves ready to go quickly.

The next morning, I'm joining the trainees as they assemble

with their new backpacks.

The charity are buying motorbikes that will turn the local vets

into the first mobile veterinary teams in the Philippines.

Getting around is always a problem in disasters,

largely because the infrastructure is damaged.

In the Pakistan earthquake we responded to in 2006,

the communities that were affected were right up in the mountains

and all the passes were closed because of snowfall

so the only access was by helicopter.

So sometimes access can be a real issue.

OK, guys, are we all listening? Being in a disaster is different

to doing normal veterinary outreach work.

In the aftermath of Yolanda,

the vet teams couldn't get out to their communities.

They couldn't get out to the communities

cos they didn't have the equipment,

they couldn't get out to their communities because they didn't have

the transport, so that's what today is about.

You're the first of these teams that the Philippines will have seen.

Let's do it, let's get on the move.

So we're heading by motorbike because it is the most convenient

way to go, and in some places, it's the only way to get there.

Right, you ready to go?

See you in the field, bye-bye. See you in the field.

Today our destination is a remote village which the team

couldn't reach straight after the typhoon.

This may be a training exercise, but the animal need is very real.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Oh, this is more like rural Philippines.

Juan Carlos has drilled the vets in his rapid assessment methods.

OK, so ask the neighbours how many animals, species, what do they need?

OK, please go and check house by house how many animals

so we can strategise and also how will we prioritise.

Remember, prioritise, OK? Move, now.

What sort of thing will you be treating in this village?

Well, normally after a storm, animals that have small cuts,

animals that are full of parasites.

Tapeworm, things like that?

Tapeworm, hookworm, round worms, ring worms, yeah, lices, mites.

It's only vitamin for this cow.

Next one.

You cannot measure things because how many dead animals.

You have to measure in what is the impact this specific event

has in this community, has in this animal population

and how can you help them to recover.

This water buffalo or carrabao is particularly important.

Without it, the village would struggle to complete the harvest.

They drag things, they plough the fields, they also carry you

to wherever you want to go. They are fantastic animals.

Aww, that looks nasty.

A fly bite just went bigger, but we're going to treat him.

Do they get anaemic as well, I mean, do you have to give them iron?

Oh, yes, a lot of fly bites, a lot of internal parasites.

This carrabao is getting vitamins,

an antiseptic spray for the bite and an oral treatment for worms.

There's a technique to make a reluctant animal take his medicine.

They put the bottle on one side of the muzzle

so with the tongue starts to distribute and swallow,

You see?

-It's very effective.

-Yeah.

It looks like one of the local brands of alcohol.

How quickly before deworming potion gets into action?

About two hours later.

I love carrabaos, I love them very much.

Gently, gently.

One of the most critical parts of the training is handling animals.

Juan Carlos is teaching the local vets a low-stress technique,

invaluable when dealing with tense cattle after a typhoon.

When possible, remember to touch the animal so he can calm down.

Let him feel your tranquility, you know?

You don't want to harm her

so, OK, everything is OK, so what are we going to do with this animal?

Vitamins and deworming.

You have prepared the injection?

The vitamins are already prepared.

OK, good.

Not all the trainees have mastered Juan Carlos's methods.

Although they are technically accomplished,

handling animals is not a big part of their training.

It's really interesting,

because they were trying to put what JC had taught them into action

and it's clearly quite difficult, so they have resorted

to the good old-fashioned kind of "tug, tug, tug."

It's hard. Animal welfare is tough.

You cannot starve the animal, so keep massaging, keep massaging,

not cleaning, massaging, exactly, do that and immediately after,

you do the injection. Exactly, exactly, you see.

What do you think about people like JC?

Interesting. Yes, do you find that interesting?

Simple holding, simple restraining, nice and easy and smooth.

Good idea.

Yeah, but first the massage, the massage, the massage, pow.

Do you feel like you're leaving a legacy behind you?

I hope, I really hope. I really hope, I really hope to be,

to have been of help to these people,

mainly for their animals. You know, when you help these animals,

you actually are helping the people.

I've come back to Jeniffer's farm but the team have started work on

another part of the farm experiment, the floor of the pig pen.

Before the typhoon destroyed them,

Jeniffer, like most other Filipino farmers,

kept her pigs in harsh concrete and iron stalls.

The new pig pen will be far more comfortable.

Do you want a hand? There seems to be another machete here.

-You're doing a good job.

-Yeah, chop it small.

-Be careful with your foot though.

-I'll try not to chop it off.

It was a great opportunity to show people how to deal with

the pre-existing animal welfare conditions by showing

a more humane form of farming at the same time.

Gerardo is testing a more pig-friendly floor

than the traditional concrete.

You would have to say, I'm really looking forward to seeing

the pigs in here because I've just been looking at

a more traditional pig thing and it's very distressing.

You see them just on concrete in these sort of iron wire cages

and you've obviously seen a lot of it and you can see.

We just couldn't bear keeping the animals in that condition

while looking at the roofs so here we are doing this thing.

This will allow the pigs to behave as they would

in their natural habitat.

The new pig pen rests on a foundation a metre deep

of layer upon layer of organic compost, rotten banana trees,

manure, charcoal and rice husks.

It's perfect for pigs who love to root and burrow.

-So are you going to fill up the whole of this place?

-Yeah.

And you're doing it in kind of layers, are you?

Yes, it's like a cake and it's about 14 cubic metres, it's a lot.

And how many pigs in here?

-12, there will be 12.

-OK.

To convince hard-headed farmers to copy this approach,

Gerardo will have to prove it is worth the time and money,

that happy pigs grow up bigger and more valuable.

In here, we need to weigh them, have a scale around and weigh them

every week or every two weeks and at the end of the day,

our farmers be invited here and take this place apart,

critique it, compare it to what they do, see what they could learn.

And Gerardo's experimental design has one big advantage

over traditional concrete stalls - it cleans itself.

I love mangos this way.

No, I agree I'm tempted to grab them off you.

-Do you chuck the stone in?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah OK, everything in there.

This is science in action. We're chopping over-ripe local fruit

to make a mush that will react with the compost.

Juicy.

You know, the idea here with this is to put on the floor, the bed.

Yes, in... In, yes.

Yes, yes, so the poop can get metabolised by the bacteria.

The mush will be left to ferment, then diluted to make a juice

which Jeniffer will spray on the floor of the pen.

The spray will help break down the piglets' muck,

keeping their pen sweet-smelling and hygienic.

It is wonderfully simple, isn't it?

It is, and she knows the deal, so it's going to be easy.

The team are helping Jeniffer restore her farm but their real goal

is far more ambitious than simply replacing what was here before.

WSPA in the past used to question why was it that we were

helping farm animals, they were in hell,

and were going to still be in hell afterwards, but it's in our DNA

that we try to better the living conditions for those guys.

Right, and so if it works here,

then the idea can spread somewhere else, you hope.

So the paradox coming here is that I do feel very sorry

for Jeniffer having her livelihood ripped up, but you can also see

that those concrete pens in which she kept the pigs

must have been completely miserable with the sow sort of captured

in an iron cage, so this represents a huge opportunity to do something.

So, you know, the typhoon did a great deal of damage

but it could in the end do a great deal of good.

The simple fact is that disaster relief can help

thousands of animals, but the team see their real challenge as

changing animal welfare conditions which affect the lives of millions.

Do you think it is because you come in

and you give aid after a disaster that governments listen to you?

-That opens the door.

-By all means, that opens a big door

because you show up in the time of need.

In the end it is about relationships, isn't it?

-That's what humans are good at.

-It's funny you say that

because people think that we are blessed with playing with animals

and touching a lot of animals. 95% of our job is convincing people.

The animals don't have a problem.

They're like, "Si, si, deal with them."

It's the politicians, local people, universities,

all the other people, yeah, yeah, those people.

The team regroup after a long day in the field. Time to get nosy,

find out a bit more about their motivation.

Being a disaster vet is a risky business.

Most have near-death experiences to recount.

So are you the one who's been at it longest then, around the table?

-This table, yeah.

-How many years?

32, I think. 31.

Afghanistan was not nice.

One of the most mined countries in the world.

They were bringing their camels with shrapnel. We were treating them.

You know, one camel will step on a mine and go to hell,

and the rest got shrapnel,

so we were just treating them in the local market.

When I first worked out here, I contracted malaria in Ghana

-and then it kind of came out when I was there.

-Here?

Yeah, and I got so bad that by the time they got me out,

-I had no radial pulse.

-Bloody hell.

You know, I was in a complete state and I'd come back round

and I can remember sitting there in a trolley in a corridor

and thinking I'm going to die on a trolley in a Philippine hospital

like thousands of miles from home.

Blimey, that's quite... That's quite hardcore.

It's a tough life to lead and balance family life.

I mean, last year I was overseas for more than half the year,

and I've got a one-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son

and I missed both their birthdays last year.

It does challenge the kind of traditional British view

of where a dad should be and how a family unit should work.

It seems you need an almost fanatical degree of commitment

to do this kind of work.

I alternated between thinking, you know,

it's fantastic you're doing it and thinking you're hopeless idealists

and it's never going to take off, you know.

Well, the thing is it will never take off if we don't try.

If we try, there is a slim chance it will, right?

-Yeah.

-So there you go.

-That's the reason.

-It'll take off if it makes money.

If it makes money, yeah, it will.

It is increasingly clear to me

that being an animal aid worker is ethically challenging.

What is the point of saving animals

if they just end up living lives that are nasty, brutish and short?

And what do the team think about delivering aid to a country

where standards are different to their own?

I'm heading off to a chicken farm

but it's very different to any other sort of chicken farm that

I will have visited before because these are actually fighting cocks.

Cock fighting is legal and widespread in the Philippines

as well as in many parts of Asia and Latin America.

I've come to see it because it's the kind of farming

that highlights the challenges that James and his team face.

The vets, after all, treated fighting cocks

during the rapid relief phase of their operation.

You can't ignore animal farming systems that you don't agree with.

Largely, those systems are where a huge majority of animals suffering

occurs around the world, so if you don't engage with those systems,

you don't impact on the lives of those billions of animals.

It looks nice and spacious. They're not crammed in, are they?

They are tied to a post, obviously, so they don't fight.

Though most animals in the Philippines are bred

for their meat, fighting cocks are bred to kill.

We were joined by Rohel Moises, one of the family which owns the farm.

And is this valuable?

Yeah, it cost 3,000 pesos.

3,000 pesos, so that would be about £50, £40 UK money.

Right, wow, that's quite valuable, isn't it?

The Moises family owns 70 cockerels.

We condition them and provide them for the fight.

Is it always a fight to their death?

Yeah.

It's very similar to boxing, in a sense. They have trainers

and conditioners and there's a lot of commercial sponsorship

of it in the Philippines as well, some very big brands.

-Associated with it too.

-Yes.

The birds go through a daily training session.

Wild cockerels fight for territory using their rear talons

which stick out from the heel of the foot.

Here, these talons are cut off

to be replaced by a blade in a real fight.

For their training, they wear protective gloves.

There is a ritual preparation for the moment of the fight,

orchestrated to raise the aggression

and give the crowd a chance to place bets.

First clawing...

then touching...

then full-on battle.

This may look distressing, but the irony is

that these are some of the best looked-after animals

in the Philippines.

I've no idea what his heart rate was doing beforehand

but you can certainly feel the heart beating there,

and you can see there's little, really little boxing gloves

on the spur there.

-And do you attach a blade?

-Yeah.

It's like a sort of doctor's bag. Can I?

That is vicious.

Wow. It's like a surgical instrument.

So I started off feeling quite gung-ho and it was certainly

really interesting watching them in the ring there, if you like,

sort of eyeing each other up and then going for it, and the way

their ruffle came up and it was actually quite exciting.

But after a little while, I started thinking,

particularly after I'd seen those blades, I thought, I don't need

to see this. I really, really don't need to see them slashing each other

to pieces, so...I'm glad I did it but I don't want to see any more.

Disasters create opportunities for foreign charities to improve

animal welfare standards, but ingrained customs are hard to shift.

Do you think there's a difference between rearing chickens to eat them

and rearing chickens effectively to fight?

It generates a huge amount of income,

it's an industry in a country where there isn't a great deal

of industry. They look reasonably well, you know, cared for

and they have a short brutal ending, but...

Yeah, and it gives you a, it gives you an idea of the challenges

we have to work with because, when you think about, say,

farming practices, you can...

you can work to make them more humane, to prove

that more humane methods are equally profitable or more profitable,

but you can't change the end result of this kind of inhumane practice.

Every year, 200 million people are affected by natural disasters.

Most live in poverty and depend on animals,

so the vets are always on the move.

At the moment, we're looking at assessment of a drought

that's emerging in Kenya, and then there's a volcano

in Indonesia that is currently spewing ash all over the place,

and there have been communities that have been evacuated away.

The animals have been left behind.

It's critical the team makes the most of its remaining time here

to leave the new model farm up and running, but a farm obviously

needs animals so I'm off with Juan Carlos to buy some piglets.

Until the insemination drive bears fruit,

they're still a scarce resource, but Juan Carlos has found a litter.

I can close the mouth just to avoid reaching out, you see?

This is not painful, it's not painful.

The anatomy of them, this is for digging, for digging the hole.

You can touch it, you can touch it here, it's not painful for them.

No, no, you can pinch it. Pinch it. No, here, here.

-Yeah, exactly, exactly, and this way.

-It's quite tough.

-Yes, yes. You can see...

-It can shovel?

Yes, it's a little shovel, exactly.

So they can dig, they can do whatever, you see they...

Why do they cut the tails off?

Because when they start to waggle their tail, it's an attraction

for the other animals, so they start to play and bite

by the tail and when they bite the tail they can infection the tail.

He's checking for signs of respiratory disease,

common in the aftermath of disasters.

Can you please hold the belly

because I don't want excessive pressure on the spine.

They're really docile animals, as you can see.

Do you want to hear it?

She's making quite a lot of noise

so it's quite difficult to hear the lungs.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's quite clear, normal.

-Very good.

-Yeah.

Once Juan Carlos has checked each piglet,

he starts to assess them as a group.

They're very inquisitive, aren't they?

Exactly, that's one important thing.

They're alert, they are curious and they will be easily trainable

to move in and out of the natural pig pen.

The good news is that these piglets are perfect for Jeniffer's farm.

The bad news is that the farmer won't sell them yet.

He's holding out for the highest possible price.

It's actually extremely important for the project that

the pigs are in place so that they see how they settle in and it would

be hugely disappointing if everyone has to go home without the pigs.

Back at the farm, it's the moment of truth

for Gerardo's innovative pig pen roof.

So they are now about to try and remove the roof,

but the roof is awfully heavy, I have to say,

and there seems to be a great number of them.

The engineer has built a stronger, heavier design than Gerardo wanted.

Jeniffer isn't necessarily going to have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

6, 7, 8, 9 people...

-She's going to list two guys and they have to do it safely.

-OK.

So did that go as you planned?

No, no. It's still slow and there's a lot of people.

When this was reinforced and made really heavy,

you know, the rules changed.

I want it be done by two men, that's the...

That's the rule of thumb.

To make something that's more lightweight,

they will have to switch one section of the roof from wood to bamboo.

It's interesting because I think what's actually happened here

is that the engineer's vision, which is to build something really sturdy,

has got in the way of Gerardo's vision, which is to build something

which you can actually pick apart quite easily,

and two, maybe three people could remove.

They're definitely running out of time. Not good.

What a mess.

One thing that's certain is that they will soon have another typhoon.

From my childhood here, I can still remember the violent storms.

They have an average of 20 a year.

The success or failure of the next mission will be measured

in just a few months' time.

I've come to a final training session

with the new team of emergency vets.

Juan Carlos has one more thing to teach them,

how to move nervous pigs in a storm,

a skill they can then pass on to Filipino farmers.

Don't kick, touch.

Touch with the knee, touch with the knee,

This corralling method is based on an approach

developed by the Canadian rancher Bud Williams in the 1960s.

They don't care what is happening

because what they just feel is like a wall approaching from the back.

So they move where they find space.

It is surprisingly effective.

Squeeze and touch, squeeze and touch.

Moving animals quickly and calmly in a disaster is vital

if you want them to survive.

So it's much less stressful for the pigs

than having to kind of hit them with sticks and make them go?

Exactly. You don't need to scream, to yell at them, to hit them.

Nothing, nothing at all.

So you get a typhoon warning, you get one of these out,

you get your neighbours, your friends along,

you need to move the pigs into a shelter...

-Exactly.

-Use this method.

-All you need is a bit of plastic like this.

-Exactly.

I can imagine with a kind of storm beginning to rage,

a lot of pigs would start to get anxious.

But that was very cool. Yeah, very simple. Elegant.

Although it's been short and intense, the training does seem

to have made a favourable impression.

It will give the animals in this area a better chance

of survival come the next typhoon.

Great input, team work.

What we have done here is history because I think it's the first time

in the Philippines that we use these kind of methods.

So you are pioneers, and as pioneers you're not only the one

that history will remember you, but also you have the responsibility

to make this to continue, to be sustained in time.

So this is the result, everybody happy, animals and us.

Thank you, thank you very much.

APPLAUSE

It's the team's final day at Jeniffer's farm

and they're rushing to finish their pioneering typhoon shelter.

They need to complete the project before they leave to ensure

it will be ready to be tested by the coming typhoon season.

They certainly have made spectacular progress from essentially

something here and a hole in the ground here

and nothing there in a week, to what they have now.

The typhoon shelters are ready,

lightweight bamboo is replacing heavy wood panels

on the pig pen roof, and the floor is full to the brim

with pig-friendly compost.

This is more or less done. We've just put greeneries and food there.

OK. So you can put the piglets in there?

Yes, but I need that bit with cement and they are just pouring it.

So that needs to dry out.

But there's one thing missing - the pigs themselves.

Luckily, Juan Carlos has just received a call.

Remember the piglets? OK, we are going there?

The farmer whose piglets we inspected

is finally prepared to sell.

The piglets destined for Jeniffer's will be in for a pleasant surprise.

Up till now they've been reared in old-fashioned concrete stalls.

You look around and it just looks like

some kind of medieval torture chamber.

There's just metal and concrete

and all completely unnatural, it really is.

The piglets are expensive,

as livestock often are in the aftermath of a disaster.

The price of simple commodities like fuel and food can increase by 400%.

For their own safety, we use the sacks.

Finally the piglets are on their way.

The first bit of good news, eh?

Yes. Very good, good news and I'm very thankful.

I enjoy giving birth to a baby idea

and taking it all the way through the kindergarten into the school,

and if we do the scientific method and do our job,

it's going to be good.

That will allow you, cause they're working with the piglets,

you have homework to do next week.

Every day!

Whatever you learn, all the problems, all the information.

-Yes.

-You're part of a giant experiment.

With the piglets finally arriving, the team have managed to complete

their project just in time.

One by one.

It's the culmination of a week of very hard work.

They're so warm, they're like little radiators, it's unbelievable.

It can be a tough job. You know, not very much sleep,

burn to pieces in the blazing sun. The everyday stress,

but I can't really see myself doing anything else.

At least for these animals, we did our job and we did it well.

It doesn't matter if it's one person or one million person,

we changed the world.

I'm sure that wasn't the dignified way to do it!

These penned piglets are pioneers in a new kind of farmer.

Five girls and five boys.

OK, that's very good.

They're happy, they look healthy and happy and they're playing.

Yes.

Oh, I smell strongly of pig!

The first thing they did was start digging around

and they were obviously very excited.

Now we need to gather enough data to have a good case on

whether or not this is a good way of raising pigs.

I'm genuinely moved, I'm really moved.

I think you've done a splendid thing here,

I think you're doing a really good thing here.

These ten healthy piglets and their ingenious new home will offer

Jeniffer and her family the chance to rebuild their lives after

Typhoon Haiyan, and restore a vital source of food to her community.

It may seem like a drop in the ocean

but if this project goes well this one small farm could act as

a catalyst to help improve the lives of animals across the Philippines.

The next thing, I guess, is you need to crunch numbers.

You need to persuade the farmers,

you need to persuade the bureaucrats, you need to persuade

other people that this is kind of a commercially viable future.

I'm quietly confident that in two years' time,

we'll be able to kind of prove that this is a viable farming system.

Not just a rescue home for ten pigs.

The charity will monitor the typhoon project at Jeniffer's to see

if it can be used as a model elsewhere in the world.

It shows how smart they are,

the fact they can work it out so quickly.

This experimental scheme has certainly shown me

that it is possible to turn even the worst disaster

into an opportunity for change.

There's a really important part of our work which involves

being there for animals when other people can't be.

The immediate work is very powerful, beyond the point where you've

removed the syringe from the cow or left the village.

But I think we do have to use the aid side of things

as leverage for the bigger change.

God is with us.

Something's with us, mate.

I'm heading to the airport now.

It has been an extraordinary week.

I mean, I leave with huge respect for the team.

They work incredible hours and they are utterly dedicated.

The seeds they've planted here, transforming Jeniffer's farm

and training a new generation of emergency vets,

really could make a difference come the next disaster.

Now, will they succeed in helping change attitudes towards

animal welfare here in the Philippines? I don't know.

One thing, however, is absolutely certain -

if there is another disaster somewhere on the planet,

they'll be heading there.