Zambezi Working Donkey Project - July 2023 Report

The generous donations of Animal Aid Abroad supporters help animals all over the world, including Zambia where our partner group Zambezi Working Donkey Project (ZWDP) operates. They have sent us their report for July 2023:

During July our team treated 63 donkeys through mobile clinics, in addition to our 14 permanent residents at Maramba Farm. 63 donkeys were dipped, 57 dewormed and 9 donkeys were treated for wounds.

We are happy to report that we have replaced two more ox-yokes for humane harnesses and we are working hard on a permanent database that will show owner plus their registration number to keep a better track of which owner has received a pair of harnesses before and to create a sense of ownership.

In our last report, we talked about our latest rescue called Musinzo. She was found in a village called Libala and has been with us for about a month now. She is making good progress and she is loving the hay corner in our quarantine paddock. She is still a little bit shy and not so eager for cuddles yet as there is huge amount of trust to win back for her when it comes to humans. Overall, she is doing better and better every day. Her wounds are slowly healing and her walking looks less painful.

Unfortunately, we had to rescue 2 more donkeys at the end of June. Our Project Supervisor Emmanuel came across these donkeys during his fieldwork and instructed the owner to come to the farm. Without hesitation, they did so. (Which was great as we often find people hesitant to leave their donkeys for a while because they need them to work). One of the donkeys has several wounds but the main issue is that the donkeys are so weak and skinny, they need time to rest and heal. We will keep you updated on their progress.

Our supervisor Emmanuel has received 3 emergency call outs during the month July. The first call was from an owner in a village called Mutonga, the donkey was urinating blood. Emmanuel found the donkey with a lot of ticks so he applied tick grease and dewormed him as well. On his last check up, the donkey was doing okay and stopped urinating blood.

The second call was from a village called Chilangu where a donkey was attacked with an axe and left badly wounded. Emmanuel was able to clean all the wounds and give the donkey medication. This donkey is on our follow up list now to make sure we keep checking on him every week!

The last emergency call was unfortunately also from someone who’s donkey was axed, by the time Emmanuel arrived it sadly had died already. As we are in the middle of our dry season, we are finding more abuse cases since people are trying to protect their vegetable gardens no matter what. We are working hard on education the communities and working together with the police to stop these horrible cases of abuse.

It is thanks to the supporters of AAA that we were able to help these donkeys and we will continue fighting their cause wherever we can!