Bela Bela in South Africa is an impoverished, forgotten community, rampant with crime, drugs and violence. Donkeys there are continuously mistreated, overworked and abused.

We urgently need your support to help them!

People are so poor they overload donkey carts and use painful, makeshift harnesses that cause the donkeys terrible injuries. Many of the donkeys suffer from lameness, injured hooves, infected wounds and injuries caused by whips and beatings. They get no medical treatment and are worked until they drop.

COVID has made poor people poorer and angry at the world. And some take it out on donkeys who can’t fight back. Donkeys are being tortured, maimed and left to die agonizing deaths. This is not an exaggeration – remember us telling you about a donkey who had its legs hacked off because it was too weak to pull a cart? Well, that’s the kind of thing we must deal with and that’s why your help is desperately needed to save these gentle and trusting creatures from a life of pain.

Donkeys are burnt, stabbed, whipped, and beaten!

Frightened, starved, abused… tortured, maimed and left to die - the “life” of a Bela Bela donkey! 1

Just the other day, our team was told about a cart that was being pulled by two exhausted and injured donkeys. When we arrived on the scene, we found two donkeys who could barely stand and had numerous injuries. We got there in the nick of time and moved them to safety. We named the pair Will and Grace.

Township life in Bela Bela is tough and dangerous – human lives mean little, let alone the lives of animals. Most donkey owners don’t even know that animals feel pain and that they need love and care. To them, donkeys exist to serve just one purpose – transportation. They are loaded with cargo from firewood and coal, to household waste and water. They are forced to do more work than their small bodies can cope with.

Starvation, diseases and animal cruelty are part of their daily lives!

Frightened, starved, abused… tortured, maimed and left to die - the “life” of a Bela Bela donkey! 2

Frightened, starved, abused… tortured, maimed and left to die - the “life” of a Bela Bela donkey! 3

Many donkeys have never known a gentle hand or a warm place to lay their heads. With winter in full swing in South Africa, many of these donkeys won’t make it without our help.

Despite the corona crisis lockdown, we return again and again to Bela Bela because the donkeys need us!

Through education and empowerment, we can make a lasting impact on the lives of these donkeys.

We have set up a workshop in Bela Bela to manufacture safe harnesses for donkeys, and are working with a community leader, encouraging him to promote donkey welfare. We are slowly making progress. We vow not to give up. Please help us fight for donkey lives. 

For the animals,

Frightened, starved, abused… tortured, maimed and left to die - the “life” of a Bela Bela donkey! 4

Brian and Gloria Davies (and Max and Flora!)
Founders Network for Animals

P.S. A donkey’s ability to suffer in silence has made it one of the world’s most abused animals. The need for education around donkey welfare is very, very apparent in Bela Bela. While poverty is not a justification for cruelty, ignorance plays a part in the lack of proper donkey care. Please give generously today so we can stop donkeys from suffering.

Thank you so much, again.