18 years helping donkeys and mules in Spain!
El Refugio del Burrito, our sanctuary in Spain, has provided care, life-saving treatments and refuge to thousands of donkeys and mules since being officially registered as a charity on 3 July 2003.
Romero and Hope were two of the first donkeys to arrive at the care of the Spanish sanctuary. As first guests of the sanctuary, they deserve their stories being remembered.
Romero was the very first donkey to be rescued by the team and taken into the new premises. He came from the well-known town of Mijas (Malaga), where donkey taxis are the main attraction for the thousands of visitors to this mountainside village.
At 28 years old, he had spent most of his life carrying tourists in the village, but was beginning to show his age, and had become lame on one of his front legs. Once at our sanctuary, Romero settled in straight away – staff commented how he was ‘king of the castle’ and loved meeting visitors - a perfect retirement for him after all those years of hard work.
Amazingly, Hope Makedonia (Hope for short) was a very gentle and friendly donkey, despite the horrors she had been through. She was a victim of a cruel attack by a group of people, who used shovels to cause horrific injuries to her neck, back and tail. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they finished by cutting off her ears three inches from their base. Hope was one of the first donkeys to join Romero at El Refugio del Burrito. She lived for seven years in our care, before sadly passing away at the grand age of 35.
The attack took place in Greece, in 2003. As the only Donkey Sanctuary in Europe then, when our Spanish sanctuary opened, we were able to transport her there to live amongst other donkeys.
Later on, The Donkey Sanctuary opened operational bases in Italy and Cyprus too. Over this time, we have cared for almost 1,785 relinquished and abandoned donkeys in Europe. We are incredibly proud of this record, and for the outstanding contribution to donkey and human welfare across Europe.
We remain firmly committed to ensuring the good welfare of each of our relinquished donkeys for the rest of their lives, however, we need to continue encouraging higher standards of welfare in the community if we want to see better, long-term welfare for all donkeys and mules in Spain.
Today we are providing care to nearly 358 donkeys and mules across our sanctuaries, and Guardian homes. Our sites are full, with very limited capacity for new relinquishments. Nevertheless, we continue helping animals working with owners and the community through education and supporting animals’ moves to adoption homes when it is really needed.
The need to be there is sadly still high, as demonstrated in some recent cases – read La Linea case and Telerin’s stories. That’s why your support, sharing, donating and adopting is more needed than ever to continue improving the lives of those animals until (hopefully) one day they no longer need us.