Zambezi Working Donkey Project, Zambia, Africa-February update

Words cannot express how grateful we are for your generosity, which has contributed to the efforts of another month in February at ZWDP. Thanks to you, our team at ZWDP treated 122 donkeys through mobile clinics, in addition to their 15 permanent residents and 4 short term rescues at Maramba Farm. 122 donkeys were dipped, 97 dewormed and 1 donkey was treated for wounds during field trips.

Here is more from the ZWDP team:

We replaced 13 ox yokes with humane harnesses during February.

2 of our rescues that came in December (Jealous and Chiloto) have been released from our care and have returned to their owners. They made a great recovery in only a few short weeks, Emmanual, our supervisor will ensure this owner will be visited regularly to check up on his donkeys.

An agreement was made with the owners of Kamuseka, Set + foal and Black to release them permanently into our care. We are happy that these donkeys will now live an easy life moving forward, thanks to the support of AAA. Hopefully we can find great “retirement homes” for them in the near future.

Unfortunately, our rescue from January, Maphalo, died on the 13th of February. Our team tried to help this poor donkey to the best of their abilities, but sometimes it’s not enough. Cases like this remind us of the importance of the work we are doing every day to help improve the lives of all working donkeys. A police case has been opened against the abusers of Maphalo and we are trying to assist as much as possible to ensure they are punished for their behaviours and they won’t repeat themselves in the future.

On the 16th of February, another rescue called Lilian came in. Her owner brought her to the farm because she was bleeding out of her nose and she had an infected wound under her right eye. Luckily, the bleeding stopped quickly but she will remain in our care for a while so we can closely monitor her every day.

Our supervisor Emmanuel was called late on Sunday evening the 25th of February to an emergency in a village called Chisangulumbwa. The donkey wasn’t eating and when it tried to drink, the water came back out of the mouth. On Monday Emmanual went to visit but unfortunately the donkey had passed away.

We are very happy to report that we have managed to finally get our first real conviction. The police reported that the suspect who attacked a donkey with an axe has been convicted and sentenced to 4 months in prison with hard labour. We are hoping that other community members will learn from this case and that everyone

knows it is illegal to abuse animals and we won’t let them get away with it. It took a lot of back and forth and follow ups with the police but we are happy our efforts are finally paying off.

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!