HARD WORK BUT WORTH IT

By the time you read this, we'll be taking a well-earned break from the first half of our Community Programme. As usual, the temperatures in July and August make it incredibly hard work for two of the team - our vet and particularly our farrier. Rasping teeth and spending most of the day bent over trimming very hard donkey hooves is not easy.

We've completed both the Nicosia and Paphos districts with Larnaca, Famagusta and Limassol to do later in the year. Having treated 274 donkeys last year, there's every possibility we will be doing more this time, especially as more owners contact us each year.

It's not all about just trimming hooves and checking teeth though; giving advice about feeding, health care, donkeys' environment and even passport information are some of the parts of the work we do, and this is why the Outreach has been renamed to Community Programme.

It's been an encouraging start too as this year we've seen several big improvements to the welfare of donkeys that we've visited before. More owners are using head collars or safer tethers, feeding their donkeys correctly and providing shelter. It might not sound a lot, but even tidying the area the donkey lives in and removing string, metal and plastic rubbish is progress. As we say over here - sega, sega - slowly slowly!

A huge thank you goes to those of you who have already provided us with items for our donkey first aid box and head collars. It's such a big help and very much appreciated.

If you wish to support our Community Programme, please visit our Adopt, Donate and Gift Shop sections on our website.