Support Donkey & Equine Rescues
Not able to rescue yourself, but would like to help make an impact on this global crisis?!
Please donate today - So we can help these amazing rescue teams to help save more lives!
Looking for a donkey to add to your farm/herd?
They make great loving & protecting friends and there are many ways to get one yourself!
Here is what Kendra from Peace for Ponies in Wareham, MA has to say!
(She has been a wonderful guide for us on this journey we began in March of 2020, finding a donkey for our small farm. Here we are 4, soon to be 5 donkeys later.)
There's: Craigslist, your local state rescue, (if you do choose a rescue that is awesome! They have saved an animal, vetted and gotten to know them, and at a place where they can go and live an awesome life. Then they can save another.)
Please note: All rescues are not alike. Most have strict contracts and they have to go back to them. There are rescue organizations who save donkeys all over the world and do great work. However, some believe it is not safe to bring pregnant jennies or babies - not sure why....and don't understand. However, they too have strict rules and contracts.
Then you have the BLM/Mustang group who are rounding up and taking donkey families off the ranges so the beef cattle can eat more. They will pay you to take them so they can go get more, to us this is very sad and some die getting rounded up.
Then there are private people like Diana Darnall from Double D Rescue Ranch in Texas, who knows and love animals. She goes into the kill pens before they are shipped and saves the pregnant moms and babies and offers to try to get you what you want. Diana then offers to get them QT and care for them and then ship because she knows if she does not they will die... they will die. She stands by you and if something happens she takes care of it. She gets nothing and often it costs her money to do this.
Penny Parker from Horse Angels & her farm Heartland in PA, will do the same and pull your dream equine from the auction there. Her heart is bigger than a 19 hand draft, just like Diana & Kendra.
We have learned there are angels in this world and there are those out to deceive and make a buck.
We honor all of you who want to save them and want you to know what that means. Those in rescues and holding pens are safe, the ones these ladies pull are not. The kill pens have agreements, sometimes for 700 donkeys a month, China will buy for hides. It is a choice and one choice is not right or wrong. There are so many ways to help donkeys just be sure you understand where they are coming from and why.
Mrs. Clause Has Another Cause will donate all donations to these three rescue teams to help to rescue more!
Here is an article to explain more about the global crisis:
The Global Donkey Crisis—Yes, Really
By Jane Desmond on February 10, 2020
The 2020 Australian wildfires, estimated one billion animal deaths. This extensive news captured our attention
and empathy for all the charismatic species like koalas and kangaroos suffering terribly in this massive natural
disaster. In other parts of the world there is a human-made disaster of global proportions affecting another
species, one we rarely give the attention afforded the iconic koala and kangaroo: the simple donkey.
Donkeys today are subject to a shocking epidemic of illegal capture, inhumane treatment and mass slaughter in many African countries and elsewhere, like Brazil and Pakistan, in order to serve the exploding demands of the traditional Chinese medicine market. Donkey skins are valued for their gelatin, a key ingredient in ejiao, a traditional Chinese medicine believed to treat illnesses as diverse as anemia, insomnia and reproductive issues. But China’s own stocks of donkeys have collapsed by 76 percent since 1992, and its annual supply of about 1.8 million donkeys cannot produce enough skins for a surging market which now demands at least four million lives a year. In fact, if the current pace continues, more than half of the world’s donkeys would need to be slaughtered in the next five years to feed China’s demand for ejiao. Contributing to the problem, the global donkey trade is only loosely regulated.
A report in November 2019 by the Donkey Sanctuary linked the trade to criminal networks, animal welfare abuses, increased international biosecurity threats like the spread of anthrax, ecological pollution from unregulated dumping of millions of donkey carcasses, and devastating effects on rural families who have their donkeys stolen. These effects are especially severe in Africa, where both legal and illegal trade in donkey skins operates in multiple countries. In Botswana, for example, donkey numbers have declined by 39 percent in the last dozen years. Recently, many countries, like Zimbabwe, Niger and Tanzania, have started to fight back by banning the slaughter of donkeys or the export of hides, but enforcement is lacking and the trade continues. In addition, widespread illegal poaching persists in many places. Donkey hides are just too valuable.
In poorer parts of the world where 500 million people depend on donkeys, a healthy working donkey can be key to a family’s economic survival and critical for the transportation of children to school or for women’s participation in the market economy. Indeed, when a donkey is stolen, it is women who are most likely to take on the donkey’s job of physically hauling water and firewood for the family. Far from the idyllic scene of the manger, these lives, for people and their donkeys, are often full of hardship and uncertain futures. And the lives of donkeys in the skin trade are miserable and often torturous. Crowded into trucks and driven for days without food and water, many arrive dead at the slaughterhouse or with broken bones and open sores. Since none of this affects the value of the skin, little attention is given to their welfare; egregious killings, like being bludgeoned with hammers, have been documented.
The American Veterinary Medical Association and the World Veterinary Association both have recently condemned the trade. All of this may feel like a distant problem for many Americans, but the United States is the third largest importer of ejiao from mainland China, after Hong Kong and Japan. Given that, Americans should take action. One way to help is to donate to reputable international nonprofits who are fighting back, such as the Donkey Sanctuary and the Brooke foundation. Working with local governments and communities in Africa, these nonprofits are helping local residents envision solutions, like the design of corrals that protect their donkeys from abduction. They are also partnering with China’s International Cooperation Committee for Animal Welfare to improve knowledge of donkey welfare. And global condemnation of the trade can affect production too. Chinese companies have started to explore alternatives, like cellular production of donkey collagen in labs, which might provide future solutions. Donkeys may not be as charismatic as koalas and kangaroos. But like those animals suffering in the wildfires, they too are in need of drastic action and a worldwide awareness of their plight. As a key driver of the global trade in ejiao, American consumers have a responsibility to educate ourselves and others about this crisis, and to work to address it.
