Compassion In Action

Emergency Response
& Disaster Relief

For after-hours emergencies, extreme cases,
and assistance during natural disasters BAWA’s 24/7 on-call
Emergency Response Team is the only team equipped
and trained to handle emergency animal rescue in Bali.

No matter what it takes…

From descending into deep river gorges, plunging into wells, breaking through walls or into abandoned buildings, digging into underground burrows, freeing monkeys from tiny cages, or climbing onto rooftops or into trees - you name it, our team will do it without hesitation.

Our dedicated ER Team takes pride in their work and will go above and beyond to save an animal in distress.

In times of crisis, BAWA is there.

When disaster strikes, our teams are on the ground providing emergency medical treatment and food for displaced and abandoned animals left behind in the aftermath of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and global pandemics.

2017 MT AGUNG ERUPTION

In 2017, the Mt. Agung volcano awoke for the first time in 53 years. As thousands were evacuated and entire villages turned to ghost towns, our teams were on the ground ensuring the safety of the animals by rescuing and evacuating many hundreds of dogs, cats, and other animals left behind in the ashes, roaming the empty streets or chained up in their abandoned homes. BAWA opened five temporary shelters in the area to keep dogs safe until they could be returned to their owners once the danger passed.

2017 MT AGUNG ERUPTION

Leading up to the eruption and every day since, our teams have continued to work in this area, traveling to the most remote and hard-to-access villages and medicating and feeding hundreds of dogs and cats daily, who have no owners to speak of, owners who never returned post-eruption, or owners who are still rebuilding their lives and can barely afford to care for their families, let alone their animals.

2018 LOMBOK EARTHQUAKES

In August of 2018, earthquakes devastated the north-northwest side of Lombok. We travelled through the hardest hit areas of the island for months, rescuing animals from destroyed buildings, rushing the severely injured to vet clinics, feeding starving animals, and providing medical treatment for all.

2018 SULAWESI EARTHQUAKES & TSUNAMI

Our teams spent months in Sulawesi, where a series of devastating earthquakes and a tsunami destroyed whole villages and left 200,000 people living in evacuee centres. We mobilized a team to provide food and medical supplies and rescue as many animals as possible, bringing the animals that survived, where their owners and homes did not, into safety. We helped set up a local animal rehabilitation centre which included installing a new water system and training local staff to run the centre.

2020-2021 COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In March 2020, Bali’s borders closed to international tourism. The island’s economy quickly ground to a halt, and extreme financial hardship was felt across Bali. The health, hunger, and welfare of the animals fell way down the priority list causing a never-before-seen spike in animal abandonment, neglect, and suffering. But unlike a localised natural disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic is the worst we’ve ever experienced because it is ongoing, and wide-spread across the entire island.