The Donkey Sanctuary was set up by Dr Svendson and is the largest donkey and mule charity. The charity depends on donations and has no government funding. Nevertheless to date 14,500 donkeys have passed through the Donkey Sanctuary's gates in the UK and Ireland.
The charity works worldwide to relieve the suffering of donkeys and to provide and maintain rescue homes. Stephanie told us some sad stories of their work overseas in such countries as Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and India. However, she stressed the positive difference that the charity's mobile clinics make to the working life of donkeys.
In the UK the headquarters of the charity is at Sidmouth and anyone can visit the farm 365 days a year. Stephanie also talked about the work done in Europe rescuing and re-housing donkeys. In the UK and Ireland, no donkey is ever turned away.
Stephanie also gave us some amazing facts:
- 11 donkeys a week come to the Sidmouth farm.
- As to life expectancy - at The Donkey Sanctuary a donkey can live to the age of 33 years, in the wild the age is 7 years and a working donkey can expect to live only 5 years on average.
The talk was warmly applauded by the audience and HTWI are hoping to make a visit to The Donkey Sanctuary to see their work and the donkeys up close!
I enjoyed the talk, I know there are so many good causes for us to think about, but when I see on the TV some loaded cart with one tiny donkey dragging it along, with the driver riding as well, my heart goes out to them. I haven't visited the sanctuary but would like to if HTWI do visit.
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