www.donkey-mule.trust.org.nz Donkey and Mule Protection Trust NZ

Newsletter No. 15 December, 2014

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From Your Editor

Time passes but the big issues regarding rescue donkeys stay the same. People breed donkeys but many do not want to pay to have their jacks gelded. Breeders provide high sounding reasons for not gelding “the new owner is being given the choice to geld” or “someone might want to breed with him.” Those of us who are picking up the endless donkey casualties and helping to raise the funds for the Trust to support gelding these donkeys down the track, have very good cause to look with a jaundiced eye on the breeders who pass the buck, and in some cases, condemn their young donkeys to a miserable life. As most donkeys get passed on every two to five years, a responsible breeder would never contemplate letting an entire donkey off their property. They know that such donkeys are at risk of abuse because they often become too strong for their owners to handle safely and can then be subject to rough and cruel treatment, or they might end up in that dire fate - a bull donkey.

This is where the Donkey and Mule Protection Trust plays such an important and valuable role. It helps the Rehoming Centres fund the rehabilitation and gelding of many donkeys and especially jacks. Without the support of the Trust some of the good work by the Rehoming centres could not happen.

The Friends of the Trust are a key mainstay to the Trust in its ability to fund its good work. The Trust is very conscious and grateful for the important role that its Friends play. The Friends are important to the continued wellbeing of the Trust, because they are supporting the Trust’s work by their continued interest and also by providing an annual contribution. The Friend’s support fee funds veterinary work which makes an essential difference to the future outcome of a lot of the donkeys. Without its Friends, the Trust would find it almost impossible to continue its good work. If you know of someone who would be interested in becoming a Friend of the Trust, do tell them about the Trust and show them our newsletter which describes some of the work going on right now, helping donkeys in need.

Summer is coming and I hope at some stage some good weather. This is the time of year to think about ordering our hay and barley straw for next winter. It is far cheaper if one can collect it off the paddock. This requires forward planning, but there is nothing so satisfying knowing that there is feed to keep the donkeys or mules going over the next winter, ensuring they are well fed and happy. Andrea Thomson

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From the Chairman

I am sorry to report the death of Jesse James of the Trust in Canterbury on 12th October. He was our sole South Island Trust donkey and had been for the past few years a "high maintenance" animal. With the careful attention of Rachel Hutton he regained some of his strength over the last two or three

years and enjoyed the company of a variety of equines. His passing has reduced the number of Trust donkeys to 12. In spite of that reduction our activities have certainly not decreased. Still In the South Island, our Nelson area rep and our ex Marlborough Trustee have assisted in the rehoming of two donkeys from Seddon. The Trust is likely to be involved in the gelding of the jack just as it is in the gelding of one of a pair from Whitemans Valley, close to Upper Hutt.

Right: Andrea driving her home bred gelding Pemberton Fafner.. He has been trained to harness since the last newsletter and he is going very kindly. Below: Neil Cook with Pero

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This indicates the wide activities in donkey rehoming that are constantly occurring, thanks to really helpful and concerned animal lovers around the country, and in particular to the ongoing work of our area representatives and associated Rescue and Rehoming Centres.

I have mentioned before the problems associated with old donkeys and especially ageing ungelded jacks/stallions, but it is some time since I last commented on the problems we create as donkey owners who are ourselves ageing! A number of us think we have the ongoing cares of our animals covered and that we will be fit to carry on trimming hooves on three or four donkeys for ages yet. Even if we need to slow down we can afford a farrier every couple of months. But then suddenly one of the couple becomes ill and everything changes. Time is not available as one does the tasks of two. Maybe money is in demand for medical expenses. Generally these problems can be solved with a little outside help but more often this leads to a decision to move closer to town and certainly to a smaller property where there is no space for two or more donkeys. Selling property is not an easy task and can result in forced timescales which obviously constrain the opportunities available to re home your animals.

I'm not suggesting that everyone over eighty should go out now and re home their donkeys! In some cases donkeys provide the drive and incentive for older people to get up in the morning! But more than just a driver for our activity, donkeys are such great company and sometimes a worthwhile and even needed challenge. What I am suggesting is that as we age we should be considering the fact that a twenty year old donkey could easily have another twenty years of life in it. Are we going to do that animal justice, as an old friend of ours, at the end of that time? If not, then what arrangements should we start considering, and maybe start implementing over the next few years so that our old friend is not significantly disadvantaged? At the same time we should be considering who may be providing a rescue service for our donkeys if something suddenly wrecks our plans. I don't want to sound negative because "someone" is out there, in the form of the Trust, but like national superannuation, it doesn't come with a lifetime written guarantee.

PS I expect to actively outlive my 30+ year old friend Pero, but I can see Missy still frisky and enjoying a banana while I am blowing out one hundred candles, so the above applies to me too. Neil Cook

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Jesse James of the Trust

We received the news in October that very sadly Jesse James had died. His caregiver said that he had had been a bit low and they were going to get him vet checked that week but he passed away before they had the chance. He was fed his breakfast and when his caregiver got home from walking her dogs he had died. She said “Jesse was a real character and we feel very privileged to have been his custodians for the last few years of his life. We have had him buried on the property with our other herd members.”

Jesse was in poor condition when he came into Trust care and it had been a struggle to put weight on him. His teeth had been regularly checked and he had been vet checked and he has had special feeds. He has been happy and the last years of his life have been comfortable, warm and loving.

He was a big donkey at least 12 hh and it was thought he could have been one of the pure teamsters from the old Bredon Stud, but his background was not able to be traced. However, we do know that he had the sweetest nature and well deserved the loving care he enjoyed in his last days as a Trust donkey.

Jesse James of The Trust

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Canterbury Re-homing Centre

Back in August, a member of our re-homing group was contacted by one of our local donkey owners. We had known this lady for several years and had found her to be a very caring and delightful person, who we considered to be a first class donkey owner. We also knew that our friend had been undergoing several treatments for breast cancer over a long period.

During the course of the phone call the donkey owner asked if she could please visit our group member urgently and this was arranged for the following day. When our friend arrived it became clear that all was not well with her health and that this was the reason for her visit. She knew her health was failing fast and asked if the Re-homing centre would be in a position to take her four gelding donkeys ASAP, with a view to eventually finding them good, long term homes.

How could anyone refuse such a request? So the four little fellows were picked up the following day and transported to the Canterbury Re-homing Centre. Sadly, our friend passed away just a few days later, at the grand old age of 43 yrs. Her concern had been for the welfare of her donkeys and she had just needed to know they would be in safe hands.

A few weeks passed before we began to think about what we could do for the four little geldings and so we decided to perhaps put them onto our website. However, we need not have worried. As so often happens, we didn’t need to find them homes - the homes came to us. Firstly there was a call from another of our local owners. The Irish boys

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She had just lost her jenny and her remaining gelding was pining for company. Knowing this to be an excellent home, two little fellows were on their way to a fresh life and a new paddock mate. Over the following weeks we were approached by two more excellent owners, also looking for companion donkeys and so we are delighted to report that all four geldings have now been safely and happily re-homed.

Margaret Salkeld, Diana Humphries, Jan Wright and Lea Hullett.

Motukawa Donkey Rehoming Centre There is now a fifth Rehoming Centre affiliated to the Trust, rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming donkeys. It is run by Barbara Jones who has been involved with horses and donkeys for very many years, and has travelled the world working with horses, and she returned to New Zealand in 2004.

Barbara is a Phlebotomist, she works with blood in a pathology consultancy. She has three donkeys and a mule of her own.

Motukawa Rehoming Centre is in Inglewood, Taranaki and is well placed to network with the other two North Island rehoming centres. Barbara has been actively rehoming for four years and has rehomed 18 donkeys over that period. She has now formalized her Rehoming centre. The first donkeys she rescued were Penny and Danny who had no top teeth!

Frankie and Happy Feet of Motukawa Barbara Jones of Motukawa Donkey Rehoming Centre rescued two young donkeys from New Plymouth. They were owned by a young girl who lived on a lifestyle block and had lost interest in the donkeys. They were very hungry and food aggressive because of this, but they will recover quickly now that they are getting well and regularly fed.

They are Frankie, a grey dun gelding, who is two years old and a chocolate coloured jenny, Happy Feet, who is just over thee years old. Barbara gave Happy Feet her name because she was so handy with her front feet when she was tryng to trim them! Barbara did some quick remedial training with Happy and she is now safe to be around. Both donkeys’ feet were in a poor state when they arrived at Motukawa Centre and Barbara did a great job of trimming their hooves. Barbara rehomed the donkeys to Mamaku Rehoming Centre in Rotorua and she kindly delivered Frankie and Happy

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Feet. Both donkeys travelled well and settled into the routine at the Centre really quickly so their in-hand training began soon after they arrived.

Pauline has been doing lots of ground work with them. Both donkeys were quite shy when they arrived at Mamaku, especially Frankie, but they have made great progress since. At the start, Happy Feet was really good to lead well, tie up and was friendlier than Frankie, so Pauline concentrated on Frankie. He blossomed and excelled with her giving the one on one handling. When Pauline went back to Happy Feet, to her surprise that training went backward, so it meant more training for Happy, but now both donkeys are dong well. Now shy Frankie is number one and first up to the rails when Pauline calls them, with Happy Feet trotting behind.

Barbara had trimmed the donkeys’ hooves before they arrived at Mamaku, Pauline waited a couple of weeks before starting to train them, to get them used to her picking up their hooves. Happy Feet was really good, but then it was Frankie’s turn. He was wanting to rear up and then it came to his back hooves. Well, he just sat down on the ground! I have never had this happen before so decided to call Ron, my farrier, to trim Frankie with me assisting and keeping Frankie calm. It worked and my farrier was concerned about Frankie's right back hoof as it was quite twisted. This sometimes happens when donkeys do not get their hooves trimmed frequently. So trimming of that hoof will be a long term commitment to get right.

Frankie and Happy Feet of Motukawa

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I don't think Frankie had ever been brushed as he was really nervous and just the sound of the brush upset him, but in time he will get used to it and will love to be brushed. Both donkeys were great to worm, which is also good, as sometimes it turns out to be a battle.

It is early days for these two youngsters and their future looks great. Pauline’s grandson is taking an interest in them and her aim is to show both donkeys as they have great potential. Her grandsons are interested in working with them and will take them to shows.

Pauline, Mamaku

Suzy of Mamaku

Suzy lived in Napier with a horse. Sahe went from owner to owner, (at least six) before a family bought her as well as the horse, who was grazing with her, for their teenage daughter. Unfortunately the family had no land of their own, so they leased a paddock and used to go visit them there. As time went by their daughter lost interest in both of them so the owners decided it would be best to rehome both the horse and donkey.

The horse found a great home which left Suzy on her own and she became stressed so her owners, concerned about her loneliness, floated her to the Mamaku Donkey Rescue & Rehoming Centre in Rotorua.

Suzy travelled extremely well for a lone, 20 year old jenny and was quite relaxed when she arrived at the Centre. We put her cover on, as the difference as the climate in Rotorua is so much colder than Napier and it looked like it was going to rain. Suzy was not used to a shelter and even though there was a shelter available at the Centre, she was reluctant to go into it. She was more interested in the donkeys grazing beside her in the next paddock, as she had not been with other donkeys for many years.

We are grateful to Suzy’s owners who travelled all that way to deliver Suzy and also to make that hard call to give her up and rehome her.

Suzy is a lovely little quiet white donkey, a little overweight, but great to trim her hooves and in time, when she gets over the stress of changing homes again, her personality will shine through.

When Suzy arrived we discovered to our alarm that she had lice, so after a treatment for this she is feeling better and looking great. We put some Filtabac (sun filter and antibacterial cream) on her “bald” patches which

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occurred from her rubbing due to the lice. The lice treatment will be repeated to make sure the lice cycle is stopped. Once this happens Suzy will be introduced to the other donkeys at Mamaku Donkey Rescue & Rehoming Centre. A happy ending for Suzy Pauline Sainsbury, Mamaku Donkey RRC Rotorua

Suzy of Mamaku

Cordelia of the Trust and other donkeys

Cordelia is well and she and her special companion, the miniature donkey Billy, are very happy. They are grazing in the farm driveway as neither of them needs rich grass and that is the area with the least grass, but has a reasonable area to move around in. Billy is never far from Cordelia and their noses touch when they are eating their hay at night. Cordelia is a bit overweight, but as long as her feed is restricted she is OK and will not succumb to laminitis, which is always at the ready to appear if she gets rich grass. At the moment a big 12 hh jenny is also in their area as she is getting overweight and also a visitor on the farm who is there for re education.

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The visitor, Cleo, kicked so badly when her feet were picked up that her blacksmith refused to trim her feet, so she is getting re educated. I discovered that she was terrified of men, so I spent a lot of time finally getting to the point where I could pick up her feet without getting kicked. I got my husband to go down and spend time patting and talking to her each day and she is getting better and less afraid. He was even able to stand by me when I picked her feet up the other day. The first time he got near her was when she was tied up and she tried to bite him, flatten him against the rails and kick him. It got quite concerning for a while!!!

But it is sad, as Cleo has clearly been abused when her feet have been done and I am spending time overcoming her fear and showing her that she need not be afraid. It is also a bigger concern as, if she injured herself and the vet was a man, he would not be able to get near her to treat her. But she

is coming along and from initially thinking it was going to be questionable whether she could be helped, to then thinking of finding a female blacksmith, I have now progressed my hopes to thinking that she will overcome her fear to let a man do her feet. It is going to be a matter of time and persistence. She will then be able to go home again, where she is much loved. She was bought recently as a pet, but her seller must have known that she was not suitable, and it was lucky that help was reasonably near to retrain her. It has taken a lot of time, but such cases are always rewarding. Andrea Ikaroa Donkey Rehoming Centre, Feilding

Cordelia of the Trust & Billy

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Braemore Honey of the Trust

Honey is a fragile little donkey as she has badly foundered front feet, which are quite out of shape and beyond rehabilitation. However, they are kept well trimmed and she walks a lot better than she did when she first returned to our farm from what turned out to be an unsuitable placement. Honey is the sweetest donkey, although she has a will of iron and loves life. Her companion of many years sadly, had to be put down a few months ago and Honey now has a new friend, who also lost her lifelong companion not long before. They were both at sea for a while but have settled in with each other’s company. Two old jennies together, getting special feeds of chaff and herbs and so on, to make sure they are getting the very best of what they need. Honey calls out to me when she hears me arrive at the shed each morning to let me know she wants room service! Honey has developed sensitivity to light on her face and on bright days she wears a mask. It is a special equine mask with the ears cut out as her ears are larger than ponies. She does not mind it and it works really well, keeping her face protected from the strong light.

Honey loves her carrots, which she gets each day and the special mix of meadow and lucerne chaff and Eezibeet. Her teeth are checked every year

and apart from her front feet, she is in good health. Honey is very determined and if she wants to go somewhere one has a jolly hard task to stop her! She wanders in and out of her shed and often lies down later in the day for an old lady’s rest. She loves her warm cover on the cold days and she has a lighter, in-between cover, for the cooler but not so cold days. She has a sheet for hot days to keep the sun off her as much as possible. Braemore Honey of The Trust

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Milo of Ikaroa and Trossachs Boston

A call was received from a lady who wanted to rehome two donkeys. The donkeys had been taken in by an acquaintance who was about to leave permanently for Australia. The caller had been left with the donkeys. After discussion it transpired that one of the donkeys was a jack. The lady knew of a good home available for the pair but the jack had to be gelded first, as one would expect, but the person would need financial assistance to have him gelded. The Trust has agreed to pay half the gelding cost for Milo and he will be gelded after Christmas, when he can be cared for while his new owner is on holiday. The boys are friendly and quiet and will make lovely pets for their new family.

The donkeys are young, being only 5 and 7 years old. They are healthy, although they are very thin. It is a far greater problem if a donkey is fat, rather than too thin, as slimming down a donkey is a difficult job. Weight can be more easily put on, as long as it is carefully done. The donkey’s feet were badly in need of trimming, but that was easily rectified. Boston had very bad rot in his front feet which will take some months of regular treatment to get rid of.

It was a wonderful solution to be able to find them a good home now that Milo is going to be gelded, thanks to the Trust. He had an uncertain future otherwise.

Andrea, Ikaroa Rehoming Centre.

One of Milo’s feet photographed before and after trimming

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Trossachs Boston

Milo of Ikaroa

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To find out more about the work of the Donkey & Mule Protection Trust visit the

web site where newsletters are freely available for download in pdf format.

www.donkey-mule-trust.org.nz

For online banking the account

number is: 03:0633:0136784:00

Are you a Friend of the Trust? Supporting the work that the Trust does in working with the Rehoming Centres to rescue, rehabilitate, retrain and rehome donkeys and mules in New Zealand is giving animals a second chance to live a happy and often useful life.

Our biggest welfare issue is (stallion) jacks that need to be gelded before they can be rehomed and become a safe family pet.

Become a Friend of the Donkey and Mule Protection Trust NZ today and help us in our work.

I/We wish to give my/our support by becoming a Friend of the Trust:

Name ...............................................................................................................

Address ............................................................................................................

Post code ..................... Email ..........................................................

Phone ............................................. Cell ..........................................................

Family annual support fee $20

Adult annual support fee $15

Junior support fee $ 7

I enclose a cheque. Please make out to the Donkey and Mule Protection Trust NZ and please send to: Neil Cook, Treasurer, Donkey & Mule Protection Trust 551 Owhiwa Road, RD 1, Onerahi. Whangarei 0192

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Trust Representatives

Northland: Neil & Ann Cook (09) 436 3623

Auckland: Marion van Dijk (09) 238 9350

Trevor Stevens (09) 294 7155

South Auckland: Anke van Dijk Ph (09) 233 4486

Waikato: Jenny & Bryan Clausen Ph; (07) 824 3735

Elton Moore Ph: (07) 883 7228

Bay of Plenty: Pauline Sainsbury (07) 357 5435

Lin Langdon Ph: (07) 573 8502

Alan Baguley (07) 312 9828

Hawke’s Bay: Susan Rogerson Ph: (06) 844 9611

Nancy Neal Ph: (06) 856 6020

Taranaki: Barbara Jones Ph (06) 7565844

Manawatu: Andrea Thomson Ph: (06) 328 9812

Wairarapa: Jenny Mason Ph: (06) 375 8504

Shelley Pender (06) 372 7651

Tasman – Nelson: Sharon Parkyn Ph: (03) 542 3096

Canterbury: Sherryn Green Ph: (03) 313 1666

Donna McLean Ph: (03) 324 4035

South Canterbury: Lea Hullett Ph: (03) 686 0735

Southland: Joan Rabbitte Ph: (03) 236 0765

Affiliated Rehoming/Rescue Centres

Mamaku (Bay of Plenty) Pauline Sainsbury 07 3574535;

Elton Moore 07 883 7228

Motukawa (Taranaki) Barbara Jones 06 7565844

Ikaroa (Lower North Island) Andrea Thomson (06) 328 9812;

Nancy Neal 06 856 6020

Canterbury Diana Humphries (03) 3297871;

Margaret Salkeld 03 326 5072

Jan Wright. (03) 384 5497;

Lea Hullett 03 686 0735

Fernhill (Southland) Joan Rabbitte (03) 236 0765

The views expressed in this magazine are those of the individuals concerned and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or the Trust.