Donkeys

Donkeys—A hard life becomes a beautiful life …at Animal Aid

In the sanctuary: The spindly legs of Spirit and Joseph and Ahimsa and Fez are never going to get much better than they are now. Their tendons or bones were broken in hard labor when their owners tied two legs together and kept pushing them forward despite the blood.

Today, these donkeys and 20 others, get from A to B in surprisingly good speed—especially if “B” is a bundle of fresh green grass. It’s almost 9 in the morning and the sun is climbing fast. So is the temperature in May—about 40 degrees by mid-morning. The donkeys at Animal Aid have had a hose-off and are munching on breakfast and talking to each other.

Mid-day heat means mid-day naps, and frolicking is reserved for after-5. These are retired donkeys who take things slow now, after having been worked to the bone by owners who either didn’t know better or didn’t care better.

On the streets: 800 working donkeys struggle through the crippling heat to bear burdens often twice the legal limit of 50 kgs. They carry sand, bricks or stone to building sites where contractors pay per load. Donkey use is especially popular on streets too narrow for tractors.
Their lives are cut short by overwork, chronic dehydration, incomplete food and lack of medical care.

The people who make the donkeys work are from a caste called “Aud”—poor and uneducated. Women and children work the donkeys, following behind them on foot, loading from one site, walking to the destination site, returning to the loading site…on and on throughout scorching heat.

Animal Aid gives free medical treatment to any Aud worker who reports problems with their donkeys and over the past seven years Animal Aid vets and staff have made numerous visits to the neighborhoods where the donkeys work and live. We advise the donkey owners on proper ways of loading, and we explain the laws that protect donkeys from over-loading (50kg is the maximum load) and laws that prohibit injured donkeys from being worked.

While some of the donkey workers have improved hobbling practices, there are still many who stubbornly tie the legs of the donkeys together to prevent “naughty” donkeys from “escaping,” even while their backs are overloaded.

Some noteworthy charities for working equines feel that the only appropriate action for chronically lame donkeys is euthanasia. At Animal Aid, retirement is our best solution. And these rickety little angels simply thrive.

Animal Aid’s darling donkeys are free from all responsibility except that of making good friends among staff, volunteers and other donkeys.

WANT TO HELP A DONKEY? Please help by providing food and care for one year for one handicapped donkey.