Thanks to a donation by Brooke Hospital for Animals, Animal Aid Society began an education and intervention project in Udaipur’s donkey-owning communities. Animal Aid also provides donkeys who are no longer able to work with safe pasture and facilities where they can retire in peace. Find out more about the Animal Aid Recovery and Retirement Home at Badi!

Animal Aid Society currently provides sanctuary shelter for about 20-25 donkeys, each of whom was abandoned after untreated injuries became serious problems. At night they are housed in shelter, protected from the elements; by day, those that can walk are taken to graze in nearby pasture.

Why are donkeys abused in a predominately Hindu culture which supposedly honors all life? Because their owners and managers are often children, uneducated about Hindu principles, and who are themselves poor and overworked and underfed.

Our staff having fun in the donkey paddock.


We see profoundly over-burdened little donkeys standing in the heat of day (which can easily pass 100 degrees F) without water, without shade, with open sores where rope—and sometimes lethal flat plastic packing tape—is pulled tight around their legs in an effort to hobble them.  Their “bosses” are children under 12 years old, waving tree branches as switches.

Animal Aid has begun a vigorous education program, systematically meeting with donkey owners, evaluating and treating their donkeys, thanks to guidance and financial support from Brooke Hospital for Animals. We are teaching new harnessing and girthing techniques, instructing owners about weight limit laws, nutrition, hydration, foot care and safe ways to confine their animals.

Unfortunately, we’re not able to rescue many of the desperate donkeys we see every day, but whatever you give helps bring one more donkey the treatment he deserves.

We need YOU to be the guardian angel of these angel donkeys.


 

A case of astounding stupidity, this donkey’s leg was tied with plastic packing tape so tightly and for so long that the tape cut like a razor through the skin and tendons all the way to the bone. With daily treatment over a period of many weeks, this donkey is now able to walk and enjoy a life of grazing, rolling in the dirt, and most importantly, no more work.


Chaman and Gaju give this donkey's wound its first dressing.


While out catching dogs for sterilization, the Animal Aid staff spotted a donkey with tape
tied around his leg. Always carrying a pocket knife for such occasions, Dilip cuts away the tape.


This donkey’s wound was a gaping hole when we first started treatment. Because of ignorance and obvious cruelty, the owner of this donkey let this saddle sore grow into a life-threatening wound.