Pheww, Christmas has come and gone, but whilst everyone at the sanctuary had a great time, it is only by the skin of our teeth and the deep pockets of our supporters and volunteers, that we have managed to stay open for another year. But unless we win the lottery, we are not sure if we will be around next year.

Anyone who had or does have children, or even dogs, knows just how expensive everything is and the money it costs to just feed and cloth them and keep them happy and well. The same applies to us but on a much bigger scale.

But we continue to have a major dilemma over the needs of abandoned cats and dogs, compared to our primary task of equines. Our volunteers started rescuing donkeys, horses, mules and ponies over 12 years ago and with some 6,300 rescues in that time we have been busy but since opening Nerja almost four years ago, we have found ourselves in a major dilemma over finances and resources relating to what to do with - and how much it costs - the now hundreds of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies, either tied up outside our gates, or thrown over the fences, usually in rubbish bags, and we continue to dread the morning opening when we see a black bag inside.

Regular readers of the magazine, without whose support over the last four years we would undoubtedly have closed, know only too well of the problems we have had with the special new licences we need to keep cats and dogs under new (and welcomed) animal welfare laws, but we never expected we would be caught up in the need to spend so much money on new kennels, runs and isolation areas for dogs and cats. Whilst, thanks to many locals and visitors who have purchased new kennels, paid for gates and fences, we now have enough resources for dealing with a dozen or so dogs and the same number of kittens, in emergencies, we are still a long way short of being able to house the number of smaller animals that continue to be dumped, or brought to us. The alternative if we do not keep them is the local pound and inevitable death for lovely little dogs like Kimi here, just one of a number re-homed locally last month.

As we review our costs daily, and with all the extra expense for new kennels and isolation areas for cats and dogs, we were wondering if it would be cheaper to board out the dogs and cats. We found it very useful to read in the Costa Animal Society (CAS) newsletter that their kennel costs for 25 dogs is €1,050 a week plus another €1,000 a month for the vets bills, making €5,000 a month in all. That soon put paid to that idea, especially as that is just about what we have to pay out for everything in a quiet month.

Luckily, we are down from our previous all time high a few years ago of over 50 dogs and 30 odd cats, to currently about 15 dogs and puppies and less than a dozen cats and kittens but the stumbling block in our financial planning is that our primary aims are to rescue and care for rather larger animals, weighing up to 500 kilos instead of 10 kilos for dogs, so our boarding costs might be a bit higher. At the Nerja sanctuary alone, we currently have 15 donkeys, three mules, one horse, ohh, plus three pigs, two turkeys and 14 chickens but no partridge in a pear tree. This gives some idea of what that lot costs but the way it is going, we think the turkeys, chickens and pigs had better watch out for our cost cutting measures.

In the same month, one recently admitted horse alone required extensive x-rays to find out if we could get her fit and well again and have a pain free life, which cost another €1,000, but in her case, that and the extra vet’s fees were worth it and she has already been moved to a better place where she can continue to improve with more exercise and specialised help.

So in that month alone, before we feed, medicate, rescue, pay our rent etc., we are €3,100 more out the door, and we think this was a quiet month!

So, what does it cost to feed and medicate the rest, run the outreach, the rescue service, schools education projects and our hospital project? Even allowing for lots of support from visitors in cat and dog food, etc., to feed our current brood, costs are a minimum of another €1,000 a month, and, dependent on the time of year and hay and straw availability, special diets etc., it can be €1,500 a month. If you throw in our rent and other overheads, bang goes another €1,000, plus our big animals have a nasty habit of breaking fences, gate and shelters for which we spend about €400 on replacements, plus normal vets and medicines bills, farrier work, and dentistry of in-house animals of about €1,600 for that month, makes our expenditure so far, €7,000 and we are not finished.

So, the sad fact of life is that to continue to support and care for the permanent care animals at the sanctuary and continue our free 24/7 rescue service for animals injured in road traffic accidents for the Guardia, or catching runaway animals, or the many elderly, ill and abandoned donkeys, horses and mules around, we may have to cut back the other work we do such as our outreach project, which has been fantastically worthwhile taking daily help, medicines and support to up to 250 local animals in the fields over the last year.

To understand how the outreach project works, the best way we can describe it is that if you are a regular visitor to Nerja or live here, or nearby, over the last two years you will have seen the amazing reduction of animals tethered up at the road side or in fields, usually barbarically tied with wire, but that now is almost a thing of the past. Yes, you will still see some animals around, but no longer are they tethered with wire, cutting into their legs, and the numbers of them are drastically reduced. This is the result of our little known but very successful outreach project.

When we started the project over two years ago, it was also as a result of financial cutbacks as we had to reduce our rescue call out work to anywhere in Spain that we would accept calls, and reduced our catchment area to within about 50km of Nerja. In turn, we also decided that if we could spend more time in the local areas, we could perhaps reduce the number of animals needing to be taken into care or dying needlessly through lack of simple medication and care. When we started the project, we had over 250 animals that needed visiting and medications. Today, just two years later, our work load is currently down to just under 20 animals that we need to visit daily, but that all comes at a cost and our outreach project and our vet’s bills and medicines top €3,000 every month, so you see why we are looking at ways to cut costs. But the sad fact is there is no financial slack and we must safeguard the long term ill and elderly animals for whom Nerja is their home.

So our thanks to all those businesses and firms in and around Nerja, Torrox, and other places that continue to help and support us and our thanks especially to Soltalk which publishes our articles for free, without whose help we would have closed our doors long ago.

Our opening times are 10am to 4pm weekdays and 10am to 1pm at weekends and we are open every day of the year including New Year’s Day as we find our lot can’t manage the tin openers to feed themselves.

Admission is free and you can find us at E2 on the Soltalk map here.

If you can’t visit us this time, then you can find out more about us, or even adopt a donkey or other animal or donate by debit or credit card or PAYPAL via our website at here or email here.

Information on volunteering or opening hours, call Kate on (+34) 664 558 135, for rescues, (+34) 618 46 7575 and for fund raising or helping at the car boot stall, Irene on (+34) 690 047 350.

You can donate in sterling or euros, cheques payable to Nerja Donkey Sanctuary, Apartado de Correos 414, Nerja, 29780, Malaga, Spain.

Bank transfers to Banco Popular Nerja No: 0075-1458-25 060-00108-86 IBAN 700751458250600010886 BIC POPUESMM

The Nerja Donkey Sanctuary is the founder member of Asociación de Malaga de los Santuarios del Burro - a registered charity dedicated to defending the environment and the rescue and care of animals, registered number 7502 and NIF G92826304.

JIM HORNE