Another working animal I’d never come across before. These are magnificent Indian buffaloes. The cows are milked and the males used to pull carts and farm implements. Fantastic animals – and actually far more common and popular than equines (there are only 1.2 million horses donkeys and mules in a human population of 1.2 billion !) Apparently, there are over ten million buffaloes – and thankfully, most seemed in good condition. Of course Hindus revere cattle – I wish people in Africa revered donkeys.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Indian Buffaloes
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Bounkita
This is my friend Bounkita - named after the donkey character in one of the children's reading books we use here.
He was also an orphan foal, so all in all, in a country like Morocco, he's a pretty lucky chap.
He earns his living as well, by being nice and gentle with all the kids who visit the SPANA refuge here in Rabat as part of the education proramme - 2300 children this year alone.
He's pretty important too. In the Arab/Moroccan culture here, everyone believes donkeys are stupid, lazy and ridiculous animals - so Bounkita gives them their first experience of a real live donkey. They just love him - and he enjoys showing them that all those stupid misconceptions are wrong.
Have you ever seen a donkey laugh?
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Diana the Dog
Kirsty Brzeczek here – SPANA’s Fundraising and Supporter Care Officer. I recently returned from the Morocco Supporters’ Tour and wanted to share with you the tale of one of the happiest dogs I’ve ever met!
The story starts with newly qualified Vet, Patrick Sells, who not only volunteered with SPANA in Morocco but also raised almost £5,000 by journeying the whole way there on his motorbike! On his way to the Midelt refuge, situated between the Middle and High Atlas Mountains, he spotted a tiny puppy who had been abandoned. Dogs aren’t well liked in Morocco as they are thought to carry infectious diseases like rabies so they’re often chased away with rocks and stones. Patrick was determined that life would be different for little “Diana” though, who he tucked into his jacket and took with him to the SPANA refuge. He taught the SPANA technicians there how to train her properly and what a wonderful companion she could make. Almost three years later and it’s wonderful to see the relationship that’s developed between dog and owner and Diana has made an invaluable addition to the busy education programme there.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Education is the key
This is education in Mali. Eighty children in this classroom - no resources, perhaps only four or five textbooks to go round the whole class.
No wonder they love the SPANA education proramme - they each get a book to keep and take home with them.
(Part of our cunning plan - their brothers and sisters get to read it as well - maybe even their parents).
But everyone seems to think it's great, particularly the Ministry of Education. And of course the main point of it for us is that it introduces the truly revolutionary concept that animals are sentient creatures. We even made a film of it - in Bambara - bound to be a big hit next year in Cannes.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
China
This is a bactrian camel - two humped, and hairier than the one humped dromedary of Africa and the Middle East because Asian deserts are so bitterly cold for most of the year.
There are still a very few wild ones around the edge of the Gobi dessert.
These are the camels that carried the trade along the Silk Road for thousands of years. Marco Polo used them.
As they headed west they met up with the one-humped variety in Jordan and Syria where they were often cross-bred. And yes, you've guessed it - the results did have one-and-a-half humps!
They're so tough they rarely need help -but do treat a few for worms or ticks, helping these fantastic animals to stay healthy.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Endangered wildlife of Zimbabwe
Keith and Lisa founded ‘The Aware Trust’ to help the endangered wildlife of Zimbabwe – rendered even more threatened by the political crises of the last few years and the poverty and unemployment that ensued.
Rhino horn used to be poached for dagger handles in Yemen, but now it’s taken for Chinese medicine – and worth fifteen thousand US dollars a kilo in-country. That’s a hell of a temptation for hungry men.
There are stories of angry poachers killing dehorned rhinos out of spite or to avoid wasting a night tracking a worthless beast – but the current feeling is that if a whole population in an area is dehorned, the poachers will leave them alone and search further afield,
Here in the Matopos Hills, near Bulawayo, there is a healthy population of some fifty white rhinos and about fifteen of the smaller black species.
When we started on Sunday, there were twenty two to do, and in two days we managed eleven.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Struggling but brave foal
We are struggling with this one.
This little colt foal lost his mother at birth. Apparently he's four months old, but you wouldn't know it. Goodness knows what the owner was feeding him on - but he brought him into us at the Casablanca clinic a couple of days ago.
Galloping squitters and severe dehydration - hence the drip.
They say he looks a bit better already.
Hmmm. Not sure. Horses are just not as tough as donkeys - and they all need a bit of fight in them - the will to live.
Poor little scrap - it looks touch and go to me.
Friday, 1 October 2010
Supporter tour
Like most charities, SPANA depends on its supporters for the means to do its work. But this week, those supporters are getting a unique opportunity to get 'close up and personal' with that work. Twenty SPANA supporters are touring Morocco visiting the centres and mobile clinics - seeing for themselves just what their money is spent on.
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Lizards and Morocco
That is a very lucky lizard.
We are in the middle of a SPANA supporters' tour. Today we're travelling down to Marrakech, but on the east side of the Atlas Mountains.
We passed this old chap at the side of the road, waving something at us.
It turned out to be a fat-tailed lizard - a really ace aphrodisiac amongst the local groovers and shakers. He thought we would pay to photograph it. Oh,foolish man.
These are SPANA people. Straight away they were bargaining to buy it.
I know, I know. He'll only get another one - but for that one lizard, it was his lucky day.
Wild cheers, as we let him go a few miles further down the road.
The Moroccan driver just shook his head in disbelief.
"Ils ont fou pour les animaux, les Anglais".
Thursday, 23 September 2010
The normal method of load carrying is the ‘Scotch Cart’. No-one seems to know how it got its name – a small wooden or metal box on two wheels pulled by an assorted number of donkeys. Originally they would have been drawn by oxen – but oxen are for the rich – so now donkeys have to do the work, and using a central pole and other gear better suited to cattle. Never mind, that’s just how it is. The SPANA project there, the Donkey Protection Trust, provides the most basic care for them.
The team have become expert in renovating the Fred Karnoish bits of wire and webbing that pass for harness. With wire cutters, cold rivets, a few buckles and spare straps, they can convert these amazing contraptions into something that will actually transmit the energy of the donkeys into the pulling of the cart, without creating sores and wounds on the animal.
A bit of extra padding, cleaning and dressing any obvious sores, perhaps worming a this one, a good talking to the owner, and then they are on their way again.
Hardly cutting edge veterinary science – but very effective.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
It's a tough life in Zimbabwe
It’s rare to see donkeys back-packing here – though I always feel that the poor wretched women carrying huge bundles of firewood on their heads, or twenty litres of water, would have done well to borrow a donkey. Perhaps they’re just too dirt poor. I once tried carrying twenty kilo bags of animal feed on my head when unloading a lorry on the farm. Five minutes of that and you feel as if you’ve been using your head and neck as a pile driver to knock down doors.
What a life rural women have here – and what a service the poor humble donkey provides for the world’s poor.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Return to Zimbabwe
I must admit it came as a pleasant surprise. The last time I came here, the price on the morning newspaper was six hundred and forty million dollars. Honestly. They’d just started printing a new set of bank notes, and the smallest was ten trillion dollars – which would just about have bought you a cup of tea – as long as the kettle took less than ten minutes to boil, prices were going up so quickly.
But this time it’s all changed. The official currencies are now the US dollar or the South African rand – and once again there is food in the shops and fuel in the garages (but only one pump working, obviously).
That doesn’t mean there isn’t still huge poverty – with massive unemployment, especially in the rural areas.
So our little welfare project around Bulawayo is still very much needed. The team travels around, sometimes huge distances, visiting villages or even stopping the carts on the roads, and giving basic veterinary care to the thousands of donkeys still working hard in the African sun.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Working with Rhinos
I have had to do lots of strange jobs at SPANA, but none more strange - or more rewarding than today's.
Our two Zim vets, Keith and Lisa, asked if we would like to help them in their battle against poachers.
There are fifty white rhinos in the Matopos Hills, and their horns are worth fifteen thousand dollars a kilo -- so the task is to locate and dart them by helicopter, then the ground crew (us) follow them through the bush until they drop, then remove their horns. They need to be carefully treated and monitored - but each rhino 'done' feels like a little victory.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Prize giving in Morocco
I must admit, I do love mules. I suppose you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. It is true, you find the odd one you might describe as a bit ‘feisty’, or one keen to give you ‘both barrels’ with his back legs – but by and large, they are a handsome, noble race. (Well, at least I think so) So it is always a pleasure to go up into the High Atlas Mountains, south of Marrakech, for the annual prize-giving we’ve instigated for the hill mules of the region.
What a sight for us mule-lovers ! (I hope that doesn’t sound a bit dodgy) Dozens of mules, all in gleaming condition, all sorts of colours and all showing themselves off, alongside their proud owners.
Monday, 16 August 2010
Marrakech garden
You can see the irony, can’t you? We do a garden for the Chelsea Flower Show, based on a Moroccan Courtyard, win a silver medal, then build the Chelsea garden back in our centre in Marrakech.
A bit weird really. But all part of our cunning plan to entice some of the thousands of visitors to Marrakech (with frankly, not very much to see or do there) to come and visit us and see the work first hand.
I felt that people on holiday – even if they were concerned about animals – might not want to go and see an animal hospital. Visions of suffering and misery and all that. But actually it’s not at all like that. The centre in Marrakech is an oasis of green and tranquillity in the middle of the chaotic, noisy, bustling city – giving an atmosphere of hope and optimism. The new ‘Chelsea Garden’ merely compliments it, and the animals in their stalls and kennels seem to appreciate that atmosphere.
Monday, 2 August 2010
Animals and children with special needs
Latest craze everywhere seems to be ‘Handicapped Riding’ or Therapeutic Riding For Children With Special Needs, as it is called nowadays.
We’ve had a little centre in Mali for years – it was great to be able to do something for the severely damaged little mites there – the tragedy is, we can help so few.
It’s also a good argument against the “How can you worry about animals when there are so many suffering children?” Well, this brings both children and animals together. It is politically very acceptable, and, let’s face it, makes wonderful PR.
So, as long as we don’t have to fund it, SPANA is very supportive – and thank goodness, it’s not that difficult to find funding.
In Aleppo we are helping a special needs school set up the first riding project. It doesn’t hurt that the President’s wife is very keen.
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
What a place!
Nice little story. 
A big Jenny donkey is brought in a couple of weeks ago, with acute mange on the fore-legs that had become infected.
She was also pregnant, and half way through the treatment, gave birth to a lively little foal.
I was there when the owner came for them.
“What a place!” he said “ I bring in one sick donkey, and go home with two. Healthy ones as well! Thank you SPANA very much
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
New foal in Marrakech
Tommy has a rival. “Peepo”, (Ye Gods, who thought that one up?) was born a month ago, to a Jenny donkey riddled with terminal cancer. Unlike Tommy, he was full term, but of course also with no mother, as she had to be put down out of her pain and misery.
But what a little star he is ! He tripped around all the guests, nuzzling in for as much fuss and attention as possible, before tripping over to the next group. There must have been a thousand photos and “Ah, isn’t he just adorable…….”.
Problem is, he lives with Tommy, no doubt a bad influence on him.
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Tommy and the British Ambassador
There's never a dull moment at SPANA.
The British Ambassador opened the garden to the great and the good of Marrakech on Saturday – and , all credit to the staff the garden looked stunning.
It was great to see young ‘Tommy’ again – born on October 11th, 2009, he’s eight months old, and rapidly turning into a juvenile delinquent. Let out of his stable, he careers around the whole place, knocking kit and equipment flying, and deliberately baiting the other animals.
Of course, the problem is, he’s thoroughly spoilt, with no mother to discipline him, and thinks he’s human.
Thank God, Dr. Boubker still loves him.
Monday, 17 May 2010
The 'Red Rose City'
One of the great privileges of working for SPANA is the truly wonderful countries and places where we work.
Imagine being involved in Petra in Jordan, and becoming familiar, even blasé, with the fabulous sites and structures of the ‘Rose-red city’. We live in a world of hype, where words like ‘fantastic’, ‘incredible’, ‘genius’, ‘unbelievable’ are trotted out daily to describe everything from a bowl of cornflakes to a pop- band that rises like a Phoenix for its fifteen minutes of fame before disappearing forever again.
But surely there can be almost no-one who walks down that stunning 300 foot deep cleft in the mountain, and sees the sunlit Treasury building – ( a hundred million tourist photos of it) , fill the zig-zag slit ahead.- and not have their breath taken away.
But we are here because of the animals.
We hope that with education and a bit of energy and enthusiasm, we might be able to change the attitudes of the local people.
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