Mannar Donkey Welfare & Management Report - July 2021
July was a tough month for Bridging Lanka and the team at the Donkey Clinic and Education Centre (DCEC), with a number of donkey fatalities.
Birthing Tragedy - Admission Number: 252
Pathinathan, from Bastion village spots a pregnant donkey in labour. By his accounts the poor Jenny was struggling to push out the unborn foal. Alhathir and Ainkaran rush to scene of the incident but too late. The foal is stillborn with half its body sticking out and its hind legs stuck in the birthing canal. Unsuccessfully they try extracting the stillborn foal. Our Vet is contacted but isn’t able to attend on site as he was attending to another emergency elsewhere. The staff had no choice but to load the mother and its stillborn still attached to its mother’s body and rush to Murunkan about 40 kms away. Our Vet worked tirelessly to extract the stillborn foal and finally success. The poor Jenny suffered severe bruising and was very weak. The Vet and DCEC staff medically treated the Jenny who is now recuperating at the DCEC.
Orphan Cared for Well - Admission Number: 253
The naval base in Mannar appears to attract donkey herds, particularly young Jennys with foals. Selva, one of the naval officers contacts the Clinic to notify an orphaned foal roaming the grounds with the herd. He had been treating a wound on the foal’s hind leg with some herbal medicine. However, the wound wasn’t healing. When the DCEC staff arrive, the foal who had become quite close to Selva stayed close to him. The staff decide to bring the foal back to the Clinic as the wound appeared very deep. The vet administered and the foal is recovering well.
Not for Want of Trying - Admission Number: 254
Ravichandhiran, a local living close to the DCEC was on his way to work when he saw two donkeys stuck in a water clogged area close to a sewer. He asked a friend to assist him in a rescue but he declined, instead giving him the DCEC phone number. The rescue crew arrive and get to work. They manage to cut the fishing net entangled to the leg of one donkey who was soon set free. However the staff face trouble untangling the other donkey from the net. The Jenny, heavily pregnant, has serious injuries to the stomach and legs. After a long struggle, the staff succeed in releasing the suffering animal before transporting her to the Clinic. It is given a good wash then treated for the gaping wounds. Unfortunately, the donkey didn’t survive the night and was buried on the DCEC premises the next morning.
Grim Reaper Strikes Again - Admission Number: 257
Around the Sithivinayakar temple, locals are familiar with a regular donkey that hangs out on the fringes of the building. One donkey was absent for three days and when it reappeared, the local shopkeeper noticed a piece of wire wound tightly around the donkey’s hind leg. The wound was bleeding severely. The shopkeeper contacted the DCEC and on arrival the staff enlisted the help of other locals to load the donkey into the vehicle. On examination at the Clinic, the vet made a decision to euthanize the animal as he noticed the wire had tightened around the leg of the donkey and the signs of tetanus were evident – the nostrils were flared, it had difficulty breathing and its overall appearance was rigid. It couldn’t drink water and was paralysed.
Tin Can Alley - Admission Number: 259
Some donkeys designate certain places in Mannar as their regular haunt. This story is about a donkey in Emil Nagar who relies on the kindness of the local folk to feed it their local scraps each day. On one of its food pursuits, the donkey’s foot gets stuck in a tin can. It tries taking the can off without much success. Worn out, it retires to an abandoned house. One of the locals sees the donkey with the tin canned hoof and calls Bridging Lanka manager, Rojan, to report the incident. The DCEC staff are informed and they manage to find the donkey and remove the tin can from its foot. A quick examination reveals no further injuries and the donkey is released to continue its food foraging in the neighbourhood.
DCEC Developments
Our Donkey Clinic & Education Centre needed lots of maintenance work but there’s never enough time to do it well. Our manager and staff welcomed the Covid lockdown period to tackle the mounting tasks. Our centre staff have different talents so the DCEC manager thought of splitting the staff into two teams and divided the areas among the teams: kulam, clinic surrounds, front area, organic cultivation and the back of the building. Thanks to Covid lockdowns 90 percent of the outstanding tasks have now been accomplished. The fading sign board was spruced up, irrigation pipes laid for growing more CO3 grass for the donkeys, lots of clearing and weeding was completed and landscaping works undertaken. The place is looking great and ready for the next influx of tourists – Covid permitting.
Recent lockdowns and curfews as a result of Covid outbreaks have been hard for the operations at the DCEC. No tourists means the donkeys are less exposed to human touch and interaction – and also substantially diminished income from the visitors. Our staff have resorted to sprucing up the spaces of the donkeys and growing additional acres of green fodder to compensate for the loss of income. We hope once the tourists start returning thatthey will enjoy interacting with the donkeys in an attractive natural landscape at the DCEC.
