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Eco friendly donkey
schemes
News
from the
Nerja Donkey Sanctuary
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Click to visit the
Donkey Sanctuary
website |
The
Junta de Andalucia has been asking that not for profit associations
think about ways to help reducing pollution and helping the
environment and recently, perhaps whether or not donkey power can
assist in these long term aims of reducing pollution, especially as
donkeys are non polluting, and their own natural waste is an excellent
natural product for agriculture and horticulture.
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not widely known that our own aims are the protection of the
environment, as well as the rescue and care of animals, and
although extremely busy with our rescue work, we are always on the
look out for ways to combine helping the environment as well as
help keep our rescued donkeys happy and alert.
We were especially
pleased when we received an invitation from Mario Cicero, Mayor of
Castelbuono, a medium sized rural town in Sicily, to visit and
inspect his plans to make his town the most environmental friendly
in Europe. As part of his plan involved donkeys, wild horses
(donkeys really) could not stop us visiting him.
In Castelbuono, the
donkeys represent part of a big project that is called “Save the
World” |
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and by 2007 Mayor Cicero
had realised his plan to replace four waste trucks with six donkeys,
especially in the old part of Castelbuono. There are many other
positive aspects due to this project, not least being the fact that
the residents of Castelbuono now feel they have a satisfactory and
reliable waste collection and re-cycling system in place that can be
built and expanded upon.
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Six days a week,
donkeys and their handlers set off around the town to collect the
rubbish, although the first port of call is a quick coffee before
starting work, and the donkeys wait patiently for their handlers
to return.
There is a daily collection of recyclable waste, with vegetables
and bread being put into the town’s composting scheme. It was
amazing to see elderly ladies hanging out of their windows waiting
for “their donkey” to arrive, and lowering their bags down on
string to be collected by the team.
One elderly
resident said: “I just love it, I don’t have to struggle down the
stairs and down to the rubbish bins with my bags any more. I can
sleep easier at night and I can really say I am very pleased to
see the back of those large noisy and smelly big trucks blocking
off streets whilst |
| they collected
rubbish and not winding their way through our town belching black
polluting hot air, especially in the summer.”
Mayor Cicero is not
finished yet and explains: “We have a list of babies and children
who are allergic to cows’ milk but can use donkeys’ milk. Our
donkeys breed and can be used to raise more money for the town and
I will never have to buy a monster smelly truck again.”
In view of the
experiences of Mayor Cicero and his efforts to make his town the
most eco-friendly in Europe, we would be delighted if Nerja or any
other local town or village would like to start the scheme as we
would be happy to help provide the donkeys and stable and care for
the animals during the trial scheme. |
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If only all rescues were as easy.
Calls about animals
wandering loose are fairly frequent and when we are short of rescue
volunteers and the call is not what we call a verified call from the
police asking us to attend as they can confirm that the animal is in
danger or is itself a danger to road users, we have to think about the
best use of our limited resources.
When a call comes from a concerned member of the public, we have the
usual dilemma of working out whether we should remain on standby for
the Guardia in case of an injured animal on the road or whether we can
afford to take the chance and send the very tired and overworked
rescue team on another call, especially as in this case, at the end of
a 24 hour shift they had already undertaken four overnight calls.
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In this case, we
asked Angela to tie it up until we got there. When we arrived at
the industrial warehouse where she had left it, needless to say it
had gone but we asked inside and the owner said he had taken it to
a field for safety.
Off we went in
convoy (joined by Angela and a friend) and here indeed was an
elderly and very tired donkey. When we went to try and check his
age (using his teeth) we found the poor old boy only had three
left. It was thought that it was just an elderly donkey that had
been used on fairground duties and was left behind. When we drove
the rescue truck and trailer up and into the field, he perked his
ears up and just walked straight into the rescue trailer.
When we got to
Nerja, our stand-by vet Nico was waiting for us and confirmed that
not only |
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he old, exhausted, hungry, overworked and lacking in teeth but he
had a terrible infection in his coat which meant he had to be
isolated away from all other animals and given an expensive course
of medication and twice daily shampoos for the next 21 days.
But we can happily
report that he is a lovely and very gentle old boy and is well on
his way to the first stage of recovery. Angela, who reported him,
asked if we could call him Capitan and we were pleased to do so.
He will need lots
of gentle exercise so if there are any gentle elderly donkey
walkers around, please drop in and see us. As he is in the
isolation pen he really needs that little bit of extra TLC and
attention, as well as exercise.
Our opening times
are 10am to 4pm weekdays (sometimes we have to close earlier due
to rescue call-outs) and 10am to 1pm at weekends. We are open
every day of the year and admission is free.
You can find us at
E2 on the Soltalk map on
here.
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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
here
or email us 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
Málaga 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
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