Foster news

It’s lovely to see donkeys from The Donkey Sanctuary foster scheme settling in well at their new homes. Billy, aged 5, and O’Mally, aged 7, have been fostered by Caroline Paxford since March this year, and were lucky enough to enjoy the delights of a new rope toy.

Looking after over 500 donkeys here at Woods Farm our work's cut out in making sure they're all cared for, fed and mucked out. So you can imagine how we feel when we look up and capture moments like this.

Jayne Rizzotti and husband Ste from Cheshire became proud foster owners last July to donkeys Bock and Eddie. Both boys were rescued from Ireland and brought to The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth in the summer months of 2012. Jayne was kind enough to send over a lovely photo of Bock and Eddie settling in to their new surroundings in Cheshire, keeping us posted on their progress.

Hi everyone, my name's Jen Littley and I thought you might like to know a little bit more about how we decide which donkeys go out to new foster homes.

Here at Paccombe Farm we have two large groups of about 170 young male donkeys to select potential foster donkeys from. Once we have chosen suitable candidates they are given a thorough health check by our vet and handled by our foster co-ordinator to have their temperaments assessed to enable our welfare team to match donkeys to specific . I am lucky enough to be involved with this process from start to finish and it’s one part of my job I enjoy the most.

David and his wife Segolene have become foster owners to donkeys Cathel and Griff. I was lucky enough to travel to Wiggaton with Farm Manager Alan Brown and a member of his staff Sam, to see the re homing of the two boys.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting a Somerset couple whose mutual love of donkeys has given them an extra reason to celebrate this festive season.