Don Quixotel

Chalkie was a troubled teenager who turned up at the gate one day. He'd been disciplined with knuckle-dusters once too often.  Derek is a little guy with a penchant for punch-ups after suffering many beatings from his previous owners.  Flash was an unwitting gofer in a drug-running operation.  And Woody was an overburdened fairground donkey whose legs gave way under the weight of too many merrymakers. 

They're just four of the 15 donkeys currently in rehab at the Nerja Donkey Sanctuary. just a few minutes drive from the famous Caves.  The Sanctuary is run by the extraordinary efforts of MD Jim Horne and a dedicated team of volunteers --angels in mud-spattered teeshirts.  It's kept open by the tender hearts and open hands of Nerja locals and holidaymakers, and coastal magazines including SolTalk, which regularly publishes advertorials for the Sanctuary free of charge.

The Sanctuary has rescued more than 6,000 distressed donkeys and mules, horses and ponies over the past 12 years and opened its Nerja centre four years ago to try and help even more.  Predictably, they have since then been inundated with fluffy, feathered and furry castaways.  As a result, the Sanctuary is also currently home to 15 dogs, a dozen cats, three pigs, two turkeys and 14 chickens, who all arrived wearing false hooves and tossing non-existent manes to get past the gate. 

That last bit isn't true, but what is true is that mending all these broken hearts and bodies costs the Sanctuary between €5000 and €6000 every month.  "We dread seeing black rubbish bags thrown over the gate," says Jim Horne, "because they will inevitably contain dogs or cats, kittens or puppies."

The good news is that they are making a visible difference in the Nerja region, especially with their outreach project.  When they started it just two years ago, they were bringing medication and care to around 250 animals.  "You'd see animals tethered with wire which cut into their legs," says Jim. Today, their dedication means that only 20 animals within a 50km radius of Nerja need that kind of care.  That's a whole lot of happier animals, and another bill of around €3000 a month.   

Anyway, Fred and I are sponsoring two donkeys.  Petra is a feisty young woman who keeps the boys in line with some well-placed kicks.  And Woody is the little fairground donkey who will now flirt for carrots. It costs €25 to adopt a donkey for a year.  And you can go visit them anytime!

The Nerja Donkey Sanctuary isn't the only establishment helping the hoofed.  Nose through this beautifully written article on the SearchIberia website, and find out about Pascual Rovira García and his life work, ADEBO (Associación para la Defensa del Borrico) in the small village of Rute, in Andalucia.

I hope you'll all gallop to your screens and help these chivalric individuals in their bighearted quest to bring comfort to donkeys and other animals in distress.  

      

Comments

[Anna Bruce-Lockhart]

Hi I'm writing this on behalf of Anna at the Guardian-

Hello,
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[Dave]

We jokingly tell our friends that we are part-owners of a donkey called Lucky who lives in the Malaga Donkey Sanctuary and whom we adopted several years ago.

But joking aside, it really is a serious matter.

Whatever publicity can be given to these poor animals is surely "muy importante"

Come on everyone! Adopt a donkey!