Conference gives humble beasts of burden their day in the sun
FROM THE ASS’S MOUTH: Karolina Minja from Tanzania studies the teeth of a donkey at the Bela Bela conference this week SPECTACULAR, endangered animals such as the rhino and elephant are often in the spotlight — but this week it was the turn of the humble donkey.
Delegates from a dozen African countries gathered in Bela Bela, Limpopo, for a conference focusing on the plight of the often overworked and cruelly abused beasts of burden.
The conference was organised and hosted by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with funding from the UK-based charity Donkey Sanctuary.
Countless thousands of donkeys are used by families across Africa as essential tools for their livelihoods, used for passenger transport and carting water, firewood and furniture.
Morgane James, a senior inspector for the NSPCA, said donkeys were rarely afforded the care and protection that all domestic animals were due.
James said that, in South Africa, the NSPCA and other organisations such as the Highveld Horse Care Unit intervened to save thousands of donkeys every year from neglect or abuse.
Often the ill-treatment was a result of ignorance about how to treat the animals, she said.
The conference in Bela Bela was held to exchange information and assess the level of care donkeys receive across Africa.
Delegates hoped to promote greater knowledge about humane treatment of donkeys, which frequently suffer because of excessive whipping, overloading and the use of badly designed carts and harnesses.
Veterinarian Sara Grosso, a delegate from the Mozambique Animal Protection Society, said she generally treated dogs and cats, but had recently noted an increasing need to step in and help vulnerable donkeys.
There are no accurate figures available for the number of donkeys in South Africa.
James said that in some cases donkeys suffered not because their owners were malicious, but because they did not know any better.
She said a common misconception among owners and handlers was that the animals did not feel pain.
Stephen Blakeway, director of international operations at the Donkey Sanctuary, said: “Donkeys just respond to pain dif- ferently. They don’t express it in the same way as horses.”
Benedict Fru Wara from Cameroon said that in his country, donkeys were the main mode of transport to get food to markets.
Local donkey owner Isaac Seema attended the conference with his three donkeys, London, Jafta and Piston.
He said he depended on the donkeys for his living, which he made from carting firewood and transporting passengers.
NSPCA delegate Wendy Wilson said the organisation was running a project in the Waterberg area that was aimed at changing the behaviour of children who whipped their animals excessively to get them to work faster.
She said that over the 12month period since the project was started there had been a dramatic reduction in whipping scars on donkeys.
There had been a dramatic reduction in whipping scars on donkeys