Cretan Animal Welfare Group

Everywhere we go the grateful owners want to give us raki or buy us coffee. Of course we are very happy that they are so pleased with our work but if we began drinking raki at 9.30 am I don’t think we would see many more donkeys!

In one village we were asked if we could see a new donkey but we were told it was out of the village, about 3km. No problem we said and followed the owner’s pickup. After a considerable distance we turned off the main road and stopped – ok we thought, but not yet! The owner came and said the road continued – dirt and stones – was it ok for us to go on. Of course, we say, and a few miles later we stop in a lovely green area with goats grazing, their bells ringing and a fine donkey just waiting for us.

What a character the owner is; when we ask for a photo of the donkey, he insists on getting his shepherd’s stick and taking various poses. His wife is in charge of the goats and comes over to see what we are doing. They are very nice people, genuinely happy for our treatment of their donkey.

The good thing was that this long trek had actually taken us in the direction of our next point of call. We only had to continue for a short distance and we were right by our next regular, having found out a short cut… if we can find it again!

Some of the donkeys we see are tethered under trees in really difficult spots to reach. It amazes us how fit some of these older people are but then they keep active with their farms and walking rather than having a car. I wonder if we will make it to their age and so fit!

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On their last day, as our team get ready for the airport we have a call that the donkeys seen the previous afternoon are limping and some blood was seen in the yard area. We leave early for the airport so that we can call and check ———all donkeys are walking fine and there is no sign of any bleeding or problems in general. They are all eating and look well so we can continue on our way to the airport and the end of another successful outreach week. Planning for the Autumn 2011 visit will soon begin!

Total Number of Animals cared for (78):

Donkeys – 69

Horses – 7

Ponies – 1

Kittens – 1

* 11 more donkeys were checked but no treatment was necessary during this visit

It costs us approx. 20EUR per animal… money well spent to help animals and their owners! Please donate to help us continue this valuable service!

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Thank you to:                                                                                                                              Garry Draper and Hans Singler for their commitment, hard work and good humour,  Aegean Sky Apartments-Malia for free accommodation and Mark and Diana of Ezelopvang Kreta for their continued hard work on behalf of the working equines of Crete.

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Unfortunately the 4th May was Agia Pelagia’s Day and as one of the scheduled villages was celebrating this day we had to continue to our next stop, further along our route returning here the following day. Although this was time consuming we were very glad to visit this village as the donkeys really needed treatment and their owners were very happy for the free, professional care.

Continuing towards Heraklion we check Stephanie and Stephanos whom we missed last October. They are in good shape, a little overweight but well cared for and happy after their service. A horse which had been found abandoned, skinny and not eating is diagnosed as having a broken jaw. We put the inexperienced ‘owner’ in contact with a vet for antibiotics and instructions for treatment.

We are asked if we wish to look at some donkeys but on arrival we realise that they will need some hoof trimmimg. As some of the bigger donkeys were not keen on this the ‘quick’ call actually became a long and hard afternoon for our experts.

Although late we still have one last call to check on a horse with melanomas. These are not life threatening and the owner is reassured about care of the condition.

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After our team enjoy a well-earned overnight stop we join with Barbara again for some visits she has arranged. After treating a few horses and some donkeys in need we felt pleased with our good start to the day until arriving at a village where the expected number of donkeys was not visible. Unfortunately some ‘clever’ person thought it would be a good joke to tell the donkey owners not to bring their donkeys as we are going to make a note of where they are and return another day to steal them and send them for salami! Fortunately it is a village we had been to previously and one of the donkeys we do treat was already seen by us so the owner knows that we are genuine and will pass the word around so that hopefully in October the people will know they can trust us and bring their donkeys for a full service, free of charge.

We were however very happy with one of the calls we made to an older horse which required serious dental work. One of his teeth was growing so long that eventually it would have penetrated the artery in the top gum and the horse would have slowly bled to death without showing any signs of the cause except to an expert. Knowing you have been able to save the life of an animal is the greatest reward for all of our team who are constantly relieving pain and suffering (unintentional) in the working animals we see. So often dental treatment is laughed at by the locals but it can literally be the difference between life and death for some of the equines.

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