Meet the rescues at NOWZAD, Afghanistan

With thanks to our donors, Animal Aid Abroad have recently sponsored a number of rescue animals housed by NOWZAD in Afghanistan. Their stories follow:

Our two boys SHADOW and JACK came to the Nowzad Donkey Sanctuary in the depths of winter 2022 from a little village west of Kabul called Deh Mazang. Both of them were working all hours of the day to help their owners earn enough money for their families, carrying bricks, cement, water and pulling heavy carts across the city, overladen with supplies. When our vet team came across the two of them,  it was clear immediately how much they were both suffering from joint displacement in the hip and legs, as well as horrific superficial wounds from their harnesses and carts.

As soon as our team brought Shadow and Jack to the Nowzad clinic, their treatment began. All of their wounds were cleaned and bandaged up whilst they were started on antibiotics and pain relief straight away. The vets made sure to vaccinate and deworm them too, to try and get them back to full health as soon as possible. Their recovery was remarkable, and very luckily for all of us, their owner agreed to Nowzad keeping them both permanently. They now live at our donkey sanctuary.  Both Jack and Shadow always like to be together so they share a pen and will not go out in the exercise field without the other! Both of them go crazy for carrots, especially Shadow.

Our lovely girl Pat and her son came to our sanctuary in 2021. Pat was living with a widowed lady in one of the villages on the outskirts of Kabul before we met her.  Sadly, Pat has rickets – a musculoskeletal disorder due to a very poor diet from birth – which has caused permanent deformities and ‘bowed’ front legs. We found Pat and her young foal whilst she was struggling under the weight of heavy water casks that she was transferring up and down the mountainside. Life was made all the harder for Pat with the pain and discomfort in her legs, plus nursing a young foal.

Despite some push-back, thankfully Pat’s owner finally agreed to let us take her for some much-needed rest along with her precious foal. Even better, this arrangement quickly became permanent as her owner realised Pat couldn’t continue working for much longer in her condition. That is when she got her name – Pat - and when her new life began. 

She is an incredibly friendly and calm lady, and a very good mum to her foal…they stick together like glue!  Pat is the biggest fan of carrots and apples and hurries on over to the gate as fast as she can whenever they get delivered.

Our most recent rescue, April, came from one of the more remote villages of Kabul.

As is the case for most of the donkeys in Afghanistan, she had been used all her life for work, carrying heavy loads between villages and into the city. However in early 2023, April sadly lost her eyesight completely. Her owner continued to work her but it became almost impossible for April, trying to navigate around the streets totally blind. She was “retired” which meant hobbling her to a stake in the ground for 24 hours a day. April was barely able to move or lie down to rest and was surrounded by plastic bags and other waste. That was to be her life until the Nowzad team found her.

After long discussions, April’s owner decided to surrender her to the sanctuary to live out her days here instead.  She came to us towards the end of April 2023, getting all of her vaccinations against rabies and tetanus as a priority. One of her first treats was a bucket-full of carrots which have fast become her favourite food, along with hay and a daily egg as the team work to build up her health and strength.

She is a very friendly donkey, and won’t let being blind stop her from seeking out as much fuss from the staff as she can.

Azad was rescued by our Afghan Country Manager Najwa, in November 2017. She was living in appalling conditions within an immigration camp, on the outskirts of Kabul city. When our team came across her, she was barely recognizable as a horse, with injuries and wounds covering her body. She was in a very weak state from a severe lack of food and water over many weeks.

We immediately transported her into our clinic in town for treatment and care. It was clear that she had been surviving off any scraps she could find, even eating plastic bags. Our vets found plastic in her faeces for at least a week after her rescue, it was all she had been living on.

It took many months of care and attention to bring Azad back to health but the team succeeded. Azad made a full recovery and is a very happy and healthy horse now. Perhaps due to an event from her past, Azad does prefer to be left alone and in peace. She’s a very nervous lady but will venture over to the gate if something sparks her interest. Ginger biscuits especially.

There is also Dehmazang – one of thousands of working donkeys in Kabul that suffer every day from injury, disease, malnourishment or poor welfare and husbandry. Luckily for Dehmazang, he was found by the Nowzad team before it was too late for him.

This friendly boy was taken in by our vets in 2018 when they were alerted to a very sick donkey working in the west of the city, pulling carts heavy with water and bricks all day long, whilst suffering from a life-threatening prolapse. His owner had just two days prior to our call abandoned Dehmazang since, in his owner’s mind, the donkey had become too poorly to continue working, and was not worth keeping. Our team responded immediately and, realizing they could save his life, brought Dehmazang to the hospital where he was put under urgent treatment and rest.

Amazingly, this strong-spirited donkey pulled through and has gone on to lead a very happy and healthy life at our Nowzad donkey sanctuary. He is one of the calmest donkeys you could ever meet, and is so friendly and affectionate – a miracle given how he must have treated previously.

Shaheen, our beautiful young horse, came to the Sanctuary for treatment from his home with another NGO in Kabul in 2022, and ended up staying for good so we could better treat his ongoing health problems. 

Shaheen had developed multiple skin tumours on his chest and legs which were proving invasive and hard to treat and making him very poorly. His back legs were so weak at one point that he was barely able to walk. After being treated at our hospital in Kabul where our vet team completely removed all his tumours, Shaheen was moved to our sanctuary to recover, and really thrived in the peaceful environment created there. He particularly enjoys his daily exercise out in the middle paddock where he benefits from a good chance to burn off his energy.

Shaheen is much loved by the staff at our sanctuary, even though he can be a very impatient young horse for his exercise or hay at times, and certainly let’s us know it!  He will thankfully stay with us all his life now, enjoying a very early retirement.

Our beautiful white donkey Maqbola arrived at the Nowzad hospital as an emergency case, after she and the cart she was pulling crashed into a car. Her leg was severely broken and splintered at the thigh bone and hip. Once her owner had been convinced to let her go for treatment, the vet team swung into action to operate on Maqbola immediately and prevent her injuries from causing blood poisoning and worse. She needed three operations in total and took a few months to recover at the sanctuary from her injuries and trauma. Maqbola soon became a firm favourite with the staff, and with the other animal residents being a particularly gentle and affectionate girl.

Her owner needed Maqbola back at work once her leg was functional again, however the team didn’t feel they could let this happen. She would suffer so much more with a damaged limb and likely have a short and very miserable life. Her daily work involved pulling heavy carts full of collected waste and rubbish, ready for sorting, and we just didn’t feel she would have the strength to do this again. We compensated the owner and took Maqbola to live out her days at our sanctuary instead, where she happily munches away on any little tidbit she is offered, especially the carrots!

Every penny you can donate to help prevent the kind of miserable fate that would have awaited Maqbola is a penny well spent. Thank you for your compassion and generosity.