Welfare

The Donkey Sanctuary organised and hosted a meeting recently to share lessons about harness interventions in international work. Chris Garrett, the Sanctuary's International Harness Development Co-ordinator, chaired the meeting.

International animal welfare charity The Donkey Sanctuary is pleased to report improvements in conditions for equines at this year’s Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

Most of the country has experienced wetter than normal conditions this year, resulting in a very poor growing season for many farmers. It’s still difficult to tell how this will have affected this year’s straw and hay production, but it is highly likely that we will continue to experience increases in forage prices and difficulty in sourcing good quality barley straw and meadow hay.

After being repeatedly attacked with bottles, a young donkey called Dandy is making a good recovery since being rescued by The Donkey Sanctuary from the Poleglass area of Belfast last week.

It may be hot and sunny at the moment, but our in-house maintenance team have designed and manufactured the framework and wooden slats for panels to be fitted to the sides of one of our more open plan donkey housing areas at Trow Farm.

International animal welfare charity The Donkey Sanctuary helped 21 trainee RSPCA inspectors brush up on their donkey welfare knowledge at a special training course at the Sanctuary’s headquarters near Sidmouth yesterday (18 January 2012).