Bridging Lanka Mannar Donkey Welfare Update
Bridging-Lanka UQ have sent us an update on their recent activity:
"We don’t often tell the good news stories of the many donkeys that recover from grotesque injuries and are eventually released. This month we’ve got a couple of updates... Remember George from August’s donkey report? George’s procrastination in reporting an injured donkey almost cost the donkey its life! It had seriously infected leg wounds and a damaged hoof. That was on 22nd August. Altogether 24 treatment sessions were had in three weeks, the most intense treatment occurred in the first week. Thankfully the donkey made a rapid recovery. It is now under observation and will be released next month.
There was also the injured foal from Adampan whose injuries were so serious that it hadn’t moved for days? The four month old foal had 25 treatments between 12th June and 20th July. Tetanus, rabies and Meglumine (pain killer) injections plus an antibiotic, Amoxicillin, were first administered then daily wound dressing with Negasunt, an antibacterial wound dressing powder and Flunixin, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. The foal resented the first few treatments and was hard to control but eventually succumbed and became very friendly. So friendly in fact that we’ve decided to keep him at the DCEC permanently. Lindy Drew’s Elvis donkey is its best friend!
Our only pure white donkey at the DCEC is our Salvatore. She is patient and well loved by the visitors. So many selfies are taken with Salvatore! Ronaldo, whom she raised like her own child, has become her best friend. Unfortunately she is currently suffering from an unusual condition of her tongue. Unlike humans, donkeys are generally stoic even when in significant pain. We only noticed something was awry when she refused to eat. When we identified the issue we administered a natural remedy, a combination of Pirantai vine extract and also Seenakkaaram, an anti-ulcer treatment. It was a challenge to keep her tongue out long enough but Salvatore was cooperative. After a day we noticed an improvement. Salvatore is now under strict observation.
The number of visitors decreased in September as rumours of a second wave of Covid infections bring back feelings of caution and fear. Of course we’ve lost our foreign visitors as the main airport remains closed but our national visitor numbers are also down. Of 47 visitors, 2 were from Australia and the rest heralded from Colombo (20), Gampaha (5), Anuradhapura (3), Kandy (2) and Mannar (15). However we were honoured to have Dr Ranil Senanayake, a veteran environmentalist (Rainforest Rescue International) and Dejan de Zoysa, CEO of Earth Restoration visit the DCEC and interact with our donkeys. A real privilege!
Sadly as has been reported before, the donkey population of Mannar is diminishing on a daily basis. The number of donkeys we are able to save is also decreasing. More and more of these precious creatures are falling victim to road and rail accidents. We are stumped over how to address this situation. After several years of negotiation with the Road Development Authority, we erected road signs alerting vehicle drivers to high density donkey areas and for them to take caution. Through our rescue and outreach activities a new awareness of valuing and caring for donkeys is developing in the Mannar psyche. But this is clearly not enough. A meeting is planned for November with the police, railway, government vets and local government to explore what can be done to reverse the incidence of donkey carnage."
We look forward to an update on how this meeting went, and how action can be taken to protect more of these animals.
