We must tell you about a heartbreaking cruelty victim who urgently needs your help. Althea, the donkey, was found butchered and bleeding in a remote grassland in a rural area not far from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. She had been axed five times and savaged by dogs. She sustained severe life-threatening injuries and was only hours from death. It’s a miracle she was found at all.
Please, will you donate immediately and help us provide the best possible medical care to Althea? She could die without it.
All Althea did was wander into a neighbor’s garden to find a scrap of food to eat. Her punishment? She was brutally hacked, nearly to death, and left to be finished off by dogs.
Althea’s left ear was almost completely ripped off and hangs by a mere inch (2.54cm) of skin. But by far, Althea’s worst wound was caused by an axe blow that shattered her bone and cut through her sinuses, creating a hole right through her head. The force was so severe that pieces of bone broke off inside her face. It was then that dogs severely savaged her ear and body, which are covered in puncture wounds.
Someone saw her and contacted authorities, who eventually arrived and THREW ENGINE OIL OVER HER HEAD to stop the flies from laying eggs in her wounds and to prevent maggots from hatching. They did nothing else and left.
Twelve hours later, they notified our partner on the ground, Matabeleland Animal Rescue & Equine Sanctuary (MARES) of Althea’s plight. We can only imagine how much this poor creature must have suffered in those long, agonizing hours, wondering if she would simply die because of her injuries.
MARES immediately rushed to the donkey’s assistance, naming her ‘Althea', which is Greek for ‘strong will'. She was barely alive and slowly dying in a deserted field. Police are currently looking for the criminal who did this, but the priority right now is helping Althea.
Althea was axed FIVE TIMES - FOUR TIMES in her face and once on her leg. Somehow, she has survived, so far - but now she needs our help to pull through intensive surgery and LIVE!
Please donate towards her emergency operation and care.
Help us to take action by donating today!
Donate today
Althea urgently needs surgery, but because she’s lost so much blood, she can’t have an anesthetic yet; her heart rate is too low because of the blood loss, and anesthetic lowers blood pressure even more. However, MARES has given her medication to sedate her and manage her pain.
Despite the horrors, this girl has endured, she is fighting to live. Althea so badly wants to live - her eyes are now half-open, and she’s slowly starting to flick her tail. These are positive signs, and MARES will be monitoring her over the next two days to make sure she will be strong enough to undergo anesthetic and surgery to stitch her leg muscle, remove dead tissue from her face and stitch up her open wounds.
We need to raise the $7,500 (£5,500) for expensive and specialized surgery and ongoing care. We promise she will never have to suffer again!
For now, we must prepare and provide everything MARES needs to keep Althea comfortable as best they can before the surgery.
Althea deserves all our support - and our compassion and utter awe for her determination and sheer will to live. Please, donate as much as you possibly can so that we can pay for Althea’s live-saving surgery and get this girl on the road to recovery so that she may live out her days in a sanctuary - loved, cared for and never, ever again allowed to be hurt by anyone.
For the animals,
Brian and Gloria Davies (and Max and Flora!)
Founders
Network for Animals
PS: Imagine, being an innocent, hungry creature, and simply wandering off in search of some food, only to be smashed through the face, repeatedly, with an AXE. Imagine the muscle of your back leg being severed in that same attack. Imagine somehow stumbling away, your vision blurred by your own hot, gushing blood, and then being attacked relentlessly by a pack of dogs as you try to hobble away, with every movement agony. Imagine surviving all of that, only to find yourself alone, helpless and abandoned in a field? Althea deserves ALL our support! Please, donate generously right now so we can show this girl what true compassion looks like.