Israelis and Palestinians rescue needy donkeys
At the side of a road in the occupied West Bank, dedicated volunteers
seek to ease the suffering of animals used, and often abused, as beasts
of burden in a harsh corner of the world.
In a mobile clinic parked next to an Israeli military checkpoint, not
far from the northern town of Qalqilya, Arab-Israeli veterinary surgeon
Jaber Kadar, a stethoscope round his neck, gently feels the swollen leg
of a large bay colt.
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A worker checks a donkey at the sanctuary of the animal-welfare
charity Safe Haven for Donkeys at the Holy Land in Gan Yoshiya,
central Israel. AFP |
“Radiography!” he calls out, before turning his attention to a
sickly-looking grey donkey hungrily sucking worm medicine from a
syringe.
“We have the medicines and the tools – antibiotics, dressings,
scalpels – with which to operate on and care for sick, injured or
maltreated donkeys and horses,” he said. Nearby, as a generator hums, a
Palestinian blacksmith in a leather apron shoes a mule who is little
more than skin and bone.
Around the temporary clinic, lashed by wind and rain, dozens of
donkeys and horses, some harnessed to carts, others led on rope halters
or carried in trucks, wait for diagnosis and treatment.
Their free treatment is provided by animal-welfare charity Safe Haven
for Donkeys in the Holy Land, which takes the mobile infirmary around
the West Bank and Israel and maintains a sanctuary and rescue centre in
the Israeli village of Gan Yoshiya.On this occasion, owners from the
Qalqilya region have heard the clinic is in their area and turned out
along with more than 150 braying and whinnying animals await their turn.
“Our team of six people, including two Palestinian vets, also operate
near the (West Bank) cities of Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Hebron and the
Arab-Israeli town of Taybe,” said project leader Adi Zahor, 46.
“We also do important educational work with both youth and adults,
mostly poor, who overwork and often abuse their animals out of ignorance
or simply from cruelty,” he added.
A short drive into Israel takes you to the Gan Yoshiya sanctuary,
home of 148 abandoned donkeys, among them “Burnie” who got his name
after being set alight by a teenager; “Salaam” who lost a leg after a
car accident and others who are blind, mutilated or just old and frail.
Grey, brown, black, they amble around quietly, occasionally stopping
to drink, or chew on bales of hay.
Recognizing Lucy Fensom, the British-born founder of the sanctuary,
one of the animals trots toward her, seeking a rub.
“The donkeys usually suffer in silence,” she says.
“Humble, intelligent and affectionate, they move me. Here, they can
end their days quietly.” Fensom started working in animal welfare in
Israel in 1989, at the age of 19, with a job at the Jerusalem Society
for the Protection of Animals, where she was exposed to the suffering of
donkeys in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
During her work, she came across one badly-abused donkey whom she was
determined to save.
Naming the battered creature “Donk” she bought him from his Bedouin
owner then launched a campaign, which resulted in him being airlifted to
Britain and re-housed at an animal sanctuary in Cambridgeshire, where he
was nursed back to health and a gentle retirement.
Her efforts attracted the attention and support of France’s Brigitte
Bardot Foundation as well as that of other animal-welfare groups, and in
2000 she set up Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land.
“I wanted to come to the aid of the donkeys, she said. In addition to
rescuing old and abused animals, and treating the sick and infirm,
Fensom also plans to launch a visitors’ centre at the sanctuary to
educate local youngsters to respect and care for their donkeys.
AFP |
