21st of December 2011 – Van den Tweel Supermarket

donates bread to the donkeys

A few weeks ago a beautiful new supermarket opened on Bonaire: Van den Tweel Supermarket. From now on the residents of and tourists on Bonaire can find here a wide selection of food items and related products. But also our donkeys profit from this great

new shop, as already twice Van den Tweel Supermarket donated large amounts of bread to the donkeys in our sanctuary. Before the supermarket opened for example, the bakery had to test run. All bread that was baked during this test run, was given to our donkeys. And also when the shop was already in business, Van den Tweel made us happy again with lots of bread for the animals. For the donkeys this is a delicious and healthy variation to their normal diet. And for us this is a welcome saving, as

we received so much bread that we could spare two complete feedings of normal donkey food. The donkeys feasted on the tasteful bread, croissants and buns! Van den Tweel Supermarket thank you!

26th of December 2011 – news letter

Recently we published our newsletter again, in which -amongst others- we look back on the past months, we introduce you to donkey Dean and of course we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Do you like to read our news letter? Just click on this link: Newsletter

23rd of December 2011 - Help the donkeys with a Christmas gift,

Stichting DierenLot will double your donation!

We urgently need your help to continue our care for the donkeys on Bonaire. Due to the many wounded and ill donkeys on the streets the medical costs are increasing. Amongst others we need to pay for medicine, euthanasia and surgeries. For example: last October the vet’s bill amounted to a total of more than 400 Dollars. Too bad we just do not have enough money to pay for this medical care. But it should not be happening, that an animal in need can no longer be helped only because of a lack of money?! So will you please help us to pay for the medical expenses for the

donkeys? Besides: your support now counts twice! As the Dutch foundation Stichting DierenLot will double your donation! The amount of money that we can collect for veterinary care thanks to you, will be doubled by Stichting DierenLot, up to a maximum of 3.500 Dollars. For instance: if we gather 500 Dollars, Stichting DierenLot will make it 1.000 Dollars. And if with your help we succeed to collect 1.750 Dollars, we will get the huge sum of 3.500 Dollars! That would make it possible to pay the medical expenses in the time coming. Will you please give a Christmas donation to the donkeys on Bonaire, so we can continue to provide medical care? Transfer your Christmas gift to our bank account and mention ‘dierenlot action’. You can find our bank details at the end of this news letter. On behalf of all donkeys in distress: thank you very much!

1st of January 2012 – bad start of the new year

Unfortunately the new year had a bad start. This morning we received a call about an injured jennet that had been hit by a car in the new year’s night. After the accident the

wounded  jennet had still managed to drag herself along for about 300 meters, back to the place where she used to be many times during the day: a pile of sand next to a house under construction. Early morning the owner of this house, at the Kaya Pauwnee in Hato, noticed the injured jennet was lying over there. Of course as soon as we received the report we set off to help this jennet. To our grief this beautiful and else wise perfectly healthy jennet had a broken back because of the car hit and we could only

help her by calling the vet to release her from suffering. Poor donkey lady, such a sad start of the new year…

19th of January 2012 – little foal missing

Yesterday evening, when it was almost dark, a gentleman reported himself at the entrance of our sanctuary. He told us that he noticed a little foal and its mum close to his home in the area of Den Statie. He thought the foal might be ill as its bottom and its hind-legs were very dirty. We thanked him for reporting this to us and explained to him that donkey babies often suffer from harmless diarrhoea when they are getting teeth, just human babies. Probably that would be the case with this little donkey as well. But of course we did not want to take any chances. So we made an appointment with this gentlemen to come over to see if the foal was doing alright first thing next morning, when there would be daylight again. So already at 7 am Marina, Marion and Mila were at the sight. They immediately noticed the donkey mum, as it was easy to recognise her by her swollen udder full of milk. Strangely enough her foal was nowhere to be seen. And it was clear the donkey mum was desperately looking and calling for her baby. We searched everywhere for the little foal, but we could not find it. The foal could not be dead, as in that case the donkey mum would still be standing next to her dead child to mourn. After an hour searching we had to go back to the sanctuary to feed the donkeys over there. But immediately after we went back to the scene to search for the foal again, this time reinforced with Genaro. The donkey mum was still wandering around, calling for her baby and suffering pain from her badly swollen udder. To our despair we did not find her foal, although we thoroughly searched all area. A donkey mum will never leave her child. So if the foal would have been stuck somewhere, its mum would have been waiting for it close by. And even if her child would have died, she would stand next to the dead body to mourn for at least a day. So we assume that, as tragically happens often on Bonaire, the foal has been stolen away from its mum by people that took it home. Of course this is traumatic for both donkey mum and foal. Moreover the donkey mother suffers painful stagnation in her udder and most of the times the foal gets mortally ill as a result of lacking essential nutrients. Poor donkey mum, poor foal… Too bad we can only wait and see if there might be any reports about the missing foal.