As the owner of three miniature Mediterranean donkeys, I have a vested interest in these amazing animals. Their gentle nature and loyal companionship make them incredibly magical to be around. Donkeys are intelligent and fun; they make wonderful pets, and I am continually fascinated by their adaptability.

However, for every donkey that is loved and treasured there are hundreds living horrific lives and that is where the work of the Donkey Sanctuary makes all the difference. The Donkey Sanctuary is an international animal welfare charity set up to create a better world for donkeys and mules and its work spans the globe. The charity provides lifelong care to over 6,200 donkeys in the UK and Europe with many millions more reached globally through international programmes and partnerships.

Projects are run by the Donkey Sanctuary, in partnership with others, to provide clinical care and training, vaccination campaigns, reducing environmental degradation and improving access to water and education in dedicated clinics in Kenya and Ethiopia. The Sanctuary has offices in Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Mexico City.

Nearer home, here in the UK, the Donkey Sanctuary has a long history of rescuing and rehoming donkeys who have suffered neglect or cruelty and they help to secure long-term homes for those needing ongoing specialist care in one of their sanctuaries in Devon. The donkey hospital in Devon is an award-winning visitor attraction and restaurant and is a global centre of excellence for donkey welfare but, more importantly, the hospital treats sick donkeys and trains vets worldwide, in partnership with over 60 veterinary schools and universities.

The Donkey Sanctuary was founded over 50 years ago by Dr Elisabeth Svendsen, who understood that donkeys everywhere were suffering and needed a voice. She set up The Donkey Sanctuary to champion their welfare and to advocate for a better life for these intelligent and remarkable animals.

Donkeys are special animals for many reasons, some of which I have already mentioned however, they are often characterised as being stubborn, comedic or stupid which, as the owner of three, I can wholeheartedly say is completely untrue. The Donkey Sanctuary know this too and they have a list of reasons why donkeys are special:

Donkeys are highly intelligent creatures, capable of independent thinking and decision-making. What is sometimes incorrectly thought of being stubborn, is in fact a highly developed sense of self-preservation – they carefully consider a situation before acting on it.
Donkeys have excellent memories. They can remember places they have visited in the past and can recognise other donkeys from many years ago.
Donkeys are social animals and form strong emotional attachments to people and other animals. They often pair with another companion for life.
The bray is one of six sounds a donkey makes, the others being growl, grunt, squeal, whuffle and snort. The bray is the loudest sound and is individual to that donkey. It can be heard over long distances, and requires the ability to vocalise while both inhaling and exhaling. The ‘hee’ during air intake, and the ‘haw’ comes as the air passes back out. I absolutely love listening to my donkeys when they bray, often when they see me coming into their paddock as they know it is either time for them to be brushed or fed - both activities being favorites!
There is a tendency to treat donkeys as if they are small horses, but they’re actually very different. According to their ancestral tree, donkeys are more closely related to zebra than horses.


Whilst donkeys are now kept in the UK predominantly as pets, they are a lifeline in some of the most challenging places on earth, providing transport and disaster relief in areas without, or inaccessible to, vehicles. Side by side, donkeys and humans fetch water, carry goods to market and work the fields. In many places, owning a donkey can be the difference between modest survival and destitution.

Today, 500 million people in the world's poorest regions rely on working donkeys, particularly women and girls. Without a donkey, children are often taken out of school to do the "donkey work."

Far from being a symbol of ridicule, this often unseen but extraordinary animal, carries global economies and some of the world’s most vulnerable communities on its back.

The biggest threat facing donkeys is the horrific human-driven animal welfare disaster and the Donkey Sanctuary’s campaign to end the global trade in donkey skins is the single biggest donkey protection initiative they have undertaken in over 50 years of operation. More than 5.9 million donkeys are slaughtered each year for their skins, which are then boiled so gelatine can be extracted to create the Traditional Chinese Medicine, ejiao. Having decimated China’s own donkey population – once the biggest in the world – the industry is now targeting countries in South America, South Asia and across Africa, to satisfy escalating demand for ejiao. For example, the donkey population in Brazil has fallen 94% in the last 30 years.

Donkeys suffer at every stage of the skin trade; from being taken or stolen from their homes, transported long distances on foot or in cramped vehicles, to being kept in holding pens without shelter, food or water, before being cruelly slaughtered and stripped of their skins. Despite the devastating scale and impact of the skin trade, and the existential threat it poses to donkeys, it is still a relatively unknown and under-reported animal welfare disaster.

Every penny received by the Donkey Sanctuary helps to deliver their mission to improve the lives of donkeys everywhere, every day, toward a vision of a world where every donkey has a good quality of life.


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