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Bandaging a donkeys broken soul !!
By rji | March 31, 2008
The slum is just like any other in Lahore, Pakistan: a place of flies and dirt and heat filled with desperately poor people and the working horses and donkeys that keep them - just - from starvation. When the Brooke team first arrived they learned the story of cart driver Mansha and his donkey Gori.
Mansha had moved to the slum from a village 70 miles away, driven by poverty to seek work in the city.
Gori, the donkey, had somehow pulled Mansha, his wife, five children and all their belongings there by cart, under a scorching June sun. Head bowed, in pain, and suffering severe dehydration, she was also three months’ pregnant.
There was no space outside the family’s two-room city hovel for Gori. Mansha had to tether her to a peg, alone and far away, without shade or shelter. She gave birth to Jugnoo there.
Together, tethered to the peg, they endured blistering heat and were lashed by brutal monsoon rains.
Each working day brought new agonies:
Gori would be separated from Jugnoo till dusk and while Jugnoo cried for his mother Gori would spend horrendous hours hauling loads of stones, cement, and steel pipes from market to market on potholed, traffic-clogged roads.
Mansha’s cart - rough-tyred and poorly designed - made progress painful. The poor animal was tormented, too, by endless thirst - but there were no troughs.
Mansha couldn’t afford green fodder, just the cheapest dry feed, which he dumped beside Gori on the filthy ground. He didn’t understand he was harming her or that malnutrition was slowly claiming her and her foal.
The Brooke mobile vet team reached them in time, and many others with them. Mansha attended the group sessions they began holding in the slum’s streets. They showed him how to groom Gori and clean her feet, explaining the importance of frequent watering, proper shade, nutritious food, and not overloading her cart.
With the Brookes teams help, Gori received a new, comfortable harness and now gets proper feed.
The Brooke team healed Gori’s pains and bandaged her broken soul, for Mansha now treats her well. And the gleam in Jugnoo’s eyes tells of the happy, healthy lives he and his mother now lead.
Horses and Donkeys, pain and suffering almost seems to go hand in hand with their relationship with man. All we seem to have heard this year is how man has tormented and ill treated his equine partners.
Thank, whichever God you hold dear, that there are Horse and Donkey rescue centres all over the world, where caring people give and give again.
Choose yours and give a little ……… Horse Rescue Centres
The Brooke is just one of many.
Topics: General Info, Worth Mentioning |
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April 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
The Brooke is looking for help this summer.
It’s asking horse lovers across the UK to help end the suffering of millions of working horses and donkeys across the globe. The Brooke, the UK’s largest overseas equine welfare charity, is appealing to the public to sign up to Horses in Need 2008 - its national fundraising campaign - now in its second successful year.
Anyone and everyone can help a horse in need by organising a sponsored sky-dive, a horse painting party, treasure hunts or dinner parties….these are just some of the ways to show your support and raise vital funds.
Everyone who signs up to Horses in Need 2008 will automatically have an online personal fundraising page, and it couldn’t be easier. Register online to invite friends, family and colleagues to join in or donate. You can also share pictures and keep track of your fundraising total.
The Brooke is also offering dedicated fundraisers the chance to win prizes and the Brooke will provide a fundraising pack full of ideas, tips and materials to get you started.
Every penny raised through Horses in Need 2008 will go a long way. £1 could buy seven hoof picks to keep hooves healthy, £5 could pay for ten anti-rabies vaccinations, £20 could pay for ten boxes of painkillers, £110 could pay for two days’ clinic in a brick kiln in Pakistan, and £365 could pay for a mobile vet and training team to be on the road for a week.
For more information or to register to take part please call 0845 367 0999 or visit http://www.thebrooke.org/hin. Sign up now and make this the biggest and best year yet!
The first 20 people to register online will receive an ‘Akiki’ donkey – a small cuddly toy presented in a box, along with a year’s adoption certificate.