Gioia

As a foal, Gioia lived with her mother in a small herd near the road in Belnem. To prevent the donkeys from being killed by traffic on this road, we tried to catch them all. Unfortunately Gioia’s mother escaped us and we were faced with a difficult decision. As Gioia was already 8 months old then, we decided to put her in safety in our special meadow for orphans. Shortly afterwards we were able to capture her mum, so they are both given shelter in our sanctuary now.

Harry †

Harry was with us since 2001 and lived to the age of more than 30 years. We released him from an awful situation: he was tied up to a tree and badly tortured. His nose and ears were cut to pieces. Despite all the cruelty inflicted on him by people, he still was a very gentle donkey. Harry enjoyed his latter days in our sanctuary and finally died of age in a peaceful way.

Una-Helena

In 2008 we received a report about a donkey with a broken leg. When we found Una-Helena, it turned out that her broken bones had already healed in a false position. Without doubt this poor mare must have suffered severe pain for weeks! Fortunately she can now enjoy her latter years with us.

Beppie

Beppie is an old mare, that we saved from the streets of Rincon in February 2009. She was badly undernourished. Although of course we gave her donkeyfood and hay daily, she hardly gained any weight. It turned out that Beppie is far too humble and therefore let the other donkeys snatch her food. To give her the opportunity to eat enough and to take her own time, we now put a bag filled with food around her neck every day. Consequently Beppie can stay together with the other donkeys and nonetheless enjoy a private meal. It looks funny, but it works out well!

Frencie

Frencie’s mother was expecting when she was hit by a car in 1998. Due to the accident, Frencie was born premature, in the street. His mother did not survive her injuries and the vet thought it impossible that the foal could be kept alive. However, we managed to bottle feed Frencie and he is a big and strong donkey stallion now. As he grew up in the company of our dog, Frencie acquired some curious habits: he always puts out his tongue, he is able to open gates and he never brays!

Below you find just a few examples of the more than 400 donkeys that live in our sanctuary.