Everyone likes to celebrate their birthday whether it’s by being with family and friends, receiving great gifts or going out for a nice meal. Are there times though when you’d like to do something a little bit different?
This time, why not ask your friends and family if, instead of giving a gift directly to you, they donate towards our donkeys’ care!
PRESS RELEASE from The Donkey Sanctuary
The Donkey Sanctuary and World Horse Welfare have today swung into action to provide essential food and support to hundreds of donkeys and horses left stranded in heavy snowfall following January’s earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy.
2016 was a great year for donkeys and mules here in Cyprus, and we would like to share this information with you and celebrate together all the great work that happened in 2016.
Please take a look at the figures on this article's picture, and help us to continue our work in 2017, by visiting our ''Adopt'', ''Donate'', ''Join Us'' and Gift ''Shop'' sections on our website.
Your generosity means a lot to us, so thank you for all your kind and valuable support.
The Donkey Sanctuary's continual aim is to aid more and more donkeys worldwide and the charity currently works in 34 countries. As some of you know, our sister charities in Spain and Italy do an incredible job of helping hundreds of donkeys, so many of whom that are in desperate need.
A concern we frequently receive is about donkeys that are tethered in fields without any shelter or water. It's very difficult for many owners to put up a shelter as they move their donkeys a lot and the ground is often rocky.
However, one of our Outreach owner's used his imagination and came up with a very unique mobile shelter for his young donkey. Using an old truck, he attached an extended roof and installed a water tank in the back to supply an automatic water trough.
Having so many very elderly, ex-working donkeys here, it’s a sad fact of life that we have to say goodbye them. Many have spent their former lives living in relatively harsh conditions, receiving a diet that beggars belief and never having seen a vet, they are, like many of their owners, quite a tough bunch.
In July we had to say goodbye to one of the toughest, most determined old donkeys we’ve known. Shilionas came to us in 2008 as he could no longer work due to failing eyesight.
Meet Clairi and Dori, two elderly ex-working donkeys who were in desperate need of our help. Both donkeys had severe dental problems, arthritis and were in very poor condition. Clairi also had a skin problem was not well at all.
They were both struggling to keep weight on due to their health problems but, after receiving medical treatment and a controlled diet, they are now beginning to improve.
It can be heart breaking to see an animal so terrified of human contact that it will put its own life at risk to get away from humans. This was the case with a young stallion called Yiannis. Although only five years old, he had only ever been given water and enough poor quality food to survive. Living in a small corral with loose wire, sharp nails and metal stakes poking out everywhere, he'd never experienced any form of kindness. As a result, not only was he incredibly frightened of humans, but his behaviour scared the people that went near him.
There are many welfare organisations on the island that do incredible work alleviating the suffering of so many animals. In October, Mary Anastasi of Cyprus Voice for Animals, organised an award ceremony at the Presidential Palace, Nicosia, in recognition of their services to animal welfare.
The Donkey Sanctuary (Cyprus) is the only organisation solely dedicated to the welfare of donkeys and mules here and so we were thrilled when we were invited to attend.
Every year we treat more and more donkeys on island and this year was no exception with 274 to visit! Many of them were receiving their first vet and farrier treatments and we were extremely pleased that their owners were keen to learn about how to take care of their donkeys.
