The Tale of 3 Donkeys

It's a normal thing to see around our village, donkeys are part of the older folks' lives, they are still used as transport and the carrier of all that is needed to be carried.. they also provide compost for the kypos. One can only hope that they are fed well and basically cared for, after all, it's in the owners own interest to keep the animals healthy .

Having said that...many of the villagers cannot afford the fees of a vet.

So, enter...Suzanne and Alistair ...'Walk With Donkeys'

I've blogged about them before here, they have as donkey sanctuary above Ierapetra, taking in and caring for abandoned and abused donkeys
. They also try to get vets to volunteer to spend some time with them, travelling around the surrounding villages giving free health checks, free treatment including dental checks and 'pedicures'...

So, this is where we come in..Leonie and I have discussed our worries about the health of the donkeys we see here in Houmeriakos, and yesterday..Suzanne, Alistair and 2 vets arrived..hoorah!!

The adhoc 'clinic' was on the street and 2 donkeys were quickly seen to..their hooves were cut and cleaned and their teeth were checked and scraped. The owners were given medicine and information on what they could do to help the health of these stoic beasts.
Erini, the owner of one of them told us that he'd been in her family for 50 years...can you believe that!!!! He's still a working beast, carting and carrying every day.

They were given new harnesses and the old ones were cut off and thrown away after finding sores where the rope had cut into the neck. I don't want to think of how long that had been rubbing.


I spied a fellow that was wondering what all the noise and hulabaloo was about!

After they'd had the full treatment, it was time for a bit of fun so Dominic had a ride down the street

So, off we went in search of one donkey I was particularly worried about...

we'd seen it in the lanes, carrying huge piles of wood and it's hooves were evidently in need of treatment.........................................

Luckily, we did find it and sadly, I was told it was the worst case Suzanne and Alistair had seen..

You can see from the above photo that the front hooves are severely overgrown

but the vet was more worried about the back legs and hooves

as a lay person, it's hard for me to describe what has actually happened so I hope the photo above helps my explanation... they donkey is actually walking on 'twisted ankles' the furthest hoove in the above photo, if you zoom in...well, that is supposed to be underneath... that is the 'sole' of the hoof. How painful is that..!!! it's been like that for years and the legs ar so deformed

You can imagine ...the best possible ending to this is that the poor thing is put to sleep immediately

When it was explained to the owners that the most humane thing to do was to have it put to sleep..they refused

saying they had no other transport.....no other way of carrying their wood.....their grain.... their veg fron the kypos.

So, the best was done of a bad job...it's front hooves were clipped and filed

The donkey struggled and slipped on it's back hooves when the front 2 were being seen to...such a sad sad sight!

As you can see, things are a little better at the front now.

Neighbours come to see what's going on and give their expert advise..

Now the hunt is on for another donkey so this one can be put out of it's misery and pain forever..
Please mention/pass this post around..the more people see what is being done by a handful of folk the more chance of people donating money/help/food. Thank you

For more info please go to Suzanne and Alistair's official site www.walkwithdonkeys.com/

They are on Facebook.

I've also noticed they have already written about this donkey on their site..