This morning I saw a scene which left me feeling sick.
About a month ago a little donkey came to live nearby. He was very young and had just been taken away from his mother, possibly too soon. He was shut up in a barn in a box all by himself with minimal contact – just food and water being left for him. AT the beginning he did not even know how to eat properly. There he stayed for a month without ever being allowed outside despite sunny weather
This morning he was taken out for the first time. A rope had been attached to his halter and he was being led by the rope and touched on his hind legs, gently at first. The intention of the handler seemed to be that he should go through a narrow door. He pulled on the rope and, following the laws of Newtonian physics that every action provokes an equal and opposite reaction, the little donkey began to pull back, his ears back and showing whale eye. Then the stick came down harder on his legs and rump and along his ribcage.
I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. What way is this to establish a relationship of cooperation with this little animal? Would it not have been far better to give him some attention each day, brushing him and speaking to him so that there would be a rapport when the first outing came? Do people not realise that for this little inexperienced animal everything is new and uncharted, particularly after spending a whole month of his short life enclosed having been abruptly taken away from his mother as soon as he began to be weaned?
Sometimes I despair of people’s lack of sensitivity.
When they had gone home for lunch (This is a professional operation)!, we went in to see him. I took some oils. At first, he stayed well back in his box, but slowly he approached. He spent a LONG time sniffing linden blossom. Then he sniffed rose, Roman chamomile and neroli, and finally he allowed himself to be scratched on his muzzle and face.
