Adoption and Visit
For Christmas 2019 our family adopted a new member of the family. His name is Harbin, he comes from Ireland, and he’s a donkey. Of course, Harbin doesn't actually live with us, he lives in a donkey sanctuary in Leeds where we visited him recently.
The name Harbin is a variant of Herbert from County Clare – it is also the name of a provincial capital in China. Luckily for Harbin he is not Chinese, (as you will read later) but has instead found himself in probably the best country in the world for donkeys looking to retire. I mean of course Great Britain.
When we first arrived at the Donkey Sanctuary (noting the large basket for carrot donations at the entrance) we headed straight out back to find our donkey. The newest arrivals press around the fence eager to say hello with their inexperienced curiosity. One got a good hold of hubby's coat! Harbin’s been around a while so he was slinking around the middle of the yard, failing to recognize his adoptive parents, hanging his head like he’d had too much Christmas drink in him.
Chatting with a staff member we learnt Harbin is 11 and had been found abandoned by the roadside in Ireland. He is intelligent, stoical, friendly and fun loving. He loves to play tug of war with wellington boots with his friends. What the donkeys love most is being together and we could see some pairs in the yard who were obviously best mates. Towards the end of our visit it approached feeding time and quite naturally a queue was being formed and the donkeys were braying away in anticipation. I wondered if that was just a feature in British donkey sanctuary’s?
Is this the queue for tea?
We headed off for a cup of tea in the cafe where a large board had been put up celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Donkey Sanctuary, a UK based charity that aims to help relieve the suffering of donkeys around the world.
History Highlights
- 1969 Dr Elisabeth Svendsen bought a donkey called Naughty Face. She then spent the next few years buying distressed donkeys at Exeter market and rehousing them.
Naughty Face
1974 Dr Svendsen was left a legacy of 204 donkeys.
1975 she had the idea of having the donkeys work with children with additional needs.
One head teacher, a Mr P M Dalaigh, wrote to Dr Svendsen in July 1976:
for three years we have tried to motivate this very withdrawn little boy who lives in a world of his own - the first day we saw him climb on the donkey - on his own - well we could have cried."
1978 Dr Svendsen and her friend June Evers undertook their first international trip to Greece and Turkey.
1982 a donkey hospital is built at Slade House Farm in the UK.
1987 a centre is opened in Ireland. A traditional part of Irish life, donkeys were often abandoned at the end of their working lives and struggled in Ireland's wet, green landscape. Many to be shot by the Garda (Irish police). A centre is also opened in Kenya, where they held a popular donkey competition with a large prize of carrots.
- Shrove Tuesday 1987 the Donkey Sanctuary made headlines. Aided by a British newspaper (plus three thousand letters sent by the public to the Spanish authorities), Dr Svendsen famously rescued a donkey named Blackie from a fiesta in a Spanish village where they traditionally beat a donkey as part of the festivities. (They still do!)
Blackie
- 1991 the Donkey Sanctuary welcomed its 5,000th donkey, a jenny called Jenny. She had spent the last two years of her life locked in a garage.
Jenny
- 1994 the adopt a donkey scheme was launched.
2000 to Current Day
Sanctuary's continue to be opened world wide – for example, the Caribbean, Egypt, Spain, Mexico, Cyprus, Italy, Nepal.
According to the 2018 annual report the sanctuary rescued 350 donkeys in the UK and 129 in Ireland. Rehousing 223 old donkeys to Donkey Guardians. One of the staff I spoke to had taken two home herself. However, their criteria is exacting.
The Donkey Sanctuary also work further afield in rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Here, for example, the Donkey Sanctuary run harness-making workshops, teach animal welfare classes to children and have even been able to offer veterinary training.
However, internationally donkeys face some tremendous threats. The Donkey Sanctuary has just made a £10,000 donation to the Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary who are struggling to feed their donkeys due to the drought and bush fires occurring in Australia.
China
One of the Donkey Sanctuary’s recent reports Under the Skin shockingly details the appalling skin trade. The document outlines the growth of the market for a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao in which the gelatin from donkey hides is a key ingredient. From 1992 to present it has been estimated that the donkey population in China has fallen from 11 million to 2.6 million. In unregulated conditions, donkeys are being slaughtered in increasing numbers across Africa, Asia and South America to export hides to China to satisfy demand. The report estimates 4.8 million hides a year for ejiao production are now required.
Due to practically no oversight or incentives, the treatment of these donkeys in the skin trade is appalling and reminiscent of the slave trade. Donkeys are often stolen/taken indiscriminately – heavily pregnant, young foals, sick or injured. Crammed into transport trucks with no food or water. Often their legs are tied by their handlers and then piled on top of each other. Many don’t make the journey to the slaughterhouse.
Video footage obtained by the Donkey Sanctuary shows the horrific treatment at many slaughterhouses in Asia, Africa and South America. Donkeys pulled by their ears, kicked and beaten with spiked sticks. Hit repeatedly with hammers in incompetent efforts to kill them. All while other donkeys are forced to watch. Dead and dying donkeys lying with open maggot infested wounds. Aborted fetuses and skinned carcasses dumped next to still living donkeys.
One country in the spotlight is Kenya. The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) has predicted donkeys could be wiped out in Kenya by 2023. The slaughter is legal (up to 1,000 a day), but additional smuggling from Ethiopia and theft is widespread. Especially with a donkey fetching about $200 quick cash. In April 2019 an outbreak of equine flu in West Africa killed 60,000 donkeys in Niger alone. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has linked this to the illegal movement of donkeys for the live skin trade.
The global donkey skin trade is the biggest threat to donkey welfare ever seen. The Donkey Sanctuary are calling for the ejiao trade to cut links with the global skin trade and move to sustainable sources of raw materials. This could be possible soon as a few years ago researchers at at the University of Barcelona in Spain grew artificial horse skin.
Looking ahead
CEO of the Donkey Sanctuary UK Mike Baker says:
We are tackling this by combining grass roots initiatives with advocacy work. For example in South Africa where investigations into the skin trade have resulted in nine court cases… One of many signs of progress was during a visit to China, where we forged a groundbreaking partnership to improve equine welfare in the country, and also launched The Clinical Companion of the Donkey – a definitive new reference book aiming to improve the health and care of donkeys globally. 2018 Annual Report
Photos for the History Highlights section are credited to the website for the Donkey Sanctuary. I have chosen not to show pictures of donkeys in distress.
If you’d like to support the work of the Donkey Sanctuary make a donation or adopt a donkey here
Whilst researching I found a good article on Steemit covering this appalling skin trade link