BlindLove - Working Donkeys in Grahamstown, South Africa - June 2023 Report

One of the newest partner groups that AAA donors enable the support of is BlindLove in South Africa. Following is the working donkeys of Grahamstown report for June 2023.

The goal of this project was to kick off a gelding campaign with the castration of 10 donkey males as well as hold 3 big veterinary outreach donkey days over a 12 month period. Also to start replacing old, ill fitting harnesses.

After some delays due to the vets wanting to hold off on the castrations until the winter months, the date has now been set for the 3rd August! We are busy collecting names and numbers of donkeys from owners who are willing / wanting to have their males castrated.

The date has also been set for the first big Veterinary donkey Outreach day. It will take place on 13 August.

We are super excited and working full steam ahead with all the organizing, planning and streamlining needed behind the scenes to secure the venue, the assistance of a couple more vets, an equine dentist, and farriers as well as approaching local businesses to provide support in the way of feed for the donkeys, food parcels for owners and their families, prizes for the best cared for donkeys /carts and handymen to assist with cart repairs.

Malibongwe, our Donkey Champion has been going out in the donkey owning community and has decided the best way to proceed is for him to identify 2-4 people ( donkey owners ) in each of the outlying 5 village areas who he will then liase with.

These people will then be the ones who spread the word, liase with the other donkey owners in the communtiy at large. In his own words “ he is like a bridge between me and the donkey owners”! ( Philippa du Toit) He has also been busy handstitching up our first batch of donkey harnesses which we have decided to start handing out at the gelding campaign.

Director Philippa Du Toit and Malibonwe went out twice ( informally ) during the month of June, met with a couple of owners, and test fitted the harnesses. The owners feedback was very positive when they saw them. Malibongwe however has said that we will have to make the harness a full set like the cart horse harness with a breeching strap behind, as the carts do not have brakes, so the breeching strap is needed for this. He also said that while he had been busy handstitching at home his brother-in-law had visited and he has a sewing machine, so they are going to start sewing with the machine!

In the local area, the donkeys often graze and roam around in the streets and the vets have asked us to talk to the owners about possible ways of indentifying them, with freeze branding being perhaps the best option. The owners do clip / cut ears as a way to identify their animals but this is not humane. The reason the vets are asking for this is that sometimes the are called out to treat a donkey in the streets and then have no way to contact the owner or follow up on the animal.

Great to see such progress being made!