00:00This one here coming up to us is Candy.
00:03She's the biggest donkey we've got at 14 hands.
00:08Woody is laying down because he's just had some breakfast.
00:12Shelly over there is the one with the brain tumour who was calling out just then behind the gate.
00:17And her mum's just on the other side having breakfast over there.
00:23Around 40 million donkeys are put to work around the world every day in a variety of fields,
00:28according to Working Animals International Research.
00:32They serve as packing animals, transporting water, carrying agricultural loads, pulling carts,
00:37and as guardian animals for livestock.
00:40Despite their utility, there are still many misconceptions around donkeys, their needs, and their behaviours.
00:47All too often, the reality of training and caring for donkeys, as either pets or working animals,
00:53falls short of expectations.
00:54And when health problems arise, donkeys in need of care often end up with Sandy and her team
01:00at the Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary in the New South Wales Hunter Valley region.
01:06There was a huge fad going around back in the early 70s of people wanting donkeys.
01:12Mum had already had a lot of experience in her early childhood with donkeys.
01:18And then people started putting up, you know, free to a good home, or I want to get rid of
01:23this,
01:23or I want to get rid of that.
01:25And so she would just take them on.
01:27She would rehabilitate them and then re-home some of them,
01:31and some she couldn't re-home due to various issues of health or handling.
01:37She ended up with like nearly 50 at that stage on the property by the late 90s,
01:43and that's when she decided to start the sanctuary itself.
01:48We've probably raised over or rescued over 3,000 easy donkeys over this period of time.
01:55Probably around the 800 to 1,000 have all been re-homed.
02:02I've got one here with a brain tumour at the moment,
02:05and so she would never be able to go out to foster care.
02:12Most, believe it or not, most of the donkeys that come into us
02:15all generally have laminitis, which is a shocking hoof disease that can never be fixed.
02:22And unfortunately, they can never be re-homed either.
02:26So this is our, if you can see that properly, all our ICU and hospital bays.
02:34So, and there's Gilbert I was telling you about.
02:39He's up the back there eating out of the blue drum.
02:43He's our 49-year-old.
02:45And then I've got Tess.
02:47She's 43.
02:49Then we've got Jacket here.
02:51This is the one that lost his tail.
02:54You can't quite see because they've got rugs on these guys
02:57because they're a bit on the older side.
03:01A lot of laminitic donkeys.
03:04That's the one with the laminitis.
03:06That's a terrible hoof disease.
03:09The donkey up there with the fly veil at the back there, that's Martina.
03:14She has, she's blind.
03:17Totally blind.
03:19And her friend, Star.
03:21Yes, I do have some ponies that have come in.
03:25This is little tiny Nibbles.
03:27He's just, he's the smallest we've got.
03:30And then another Shetland.
03:32And then two more donkeys and a little Shetland in here as well.
03:37Donkeys are descended from the African wild ass
03:40and were domesticated thousands of years ago
03:43for manual labor and working companionship.
03:45They are social animals that create deep bonds with their herds
03:49both in the wild and in domesticated environments.
03:53Donkeys are also highly intelligent and incredibly cautious creatures.
03:57And it's their natural cautiousness,
04:00often seen in their instinct to freeze during stressful situations
04:03rather than to flee,
04:05that has unfairly given them the reputation of stubbornness.
04:09Typically, the people who say donkeys are stubborn
04:12are the people that don't know donkeys.
04:15Donkeys are the most intelligent of all equines.
04:18They never forget.
04:20They are very easy to train.
04:23They're more like a dog, theoretically, that you could ride.
04:26Obviously, depending on the size.
04:29Yet, they are very easy to educate and train.
04:31But, of course, it's with anything.
04:33It's got to start young.
04:34It's got to start the day they're born, basically.
04:37You can't go and get a wild donkey from the wild
04:40and then expect to be able to catch it, tie it up, do its feet
04:46because they don't know who you are or what you are.
04:49They've never seen a human before.
04:50So, one, they're petrified.
04:52And it takes a long time, and I can say years sometimes,
04:58to tame and train a wild donkey.
05:02So, and that's for someone that's got some experience.
05:07You've got to have the right donkey to do the right task at hand,
05:10and that can be for anything, anything you get.
05:13I mean, if you go out and buy a riding pony, for instance,
05:16you want to make sure that it's correctly broken in
05:19and suitable for you to ride on.
05:23If you want a donkey to be in harness, well, it's got to be educated
05:27and trained to be broken into harness.
05:30Not every donkey is going to be suitable for guardianship,
05:34and that's the dilemma people get themselves into.
05:38You know, they'll go and buy, I don't know,
05:40oh, I don't want a mini donkey.
05:42So, they go off and buy themselves a nice little mini donkey.
05:45The mini donkey's the same size as the sheep.
05:48Of course, it's going to be taken down.
05:50You know, it's not going to be able to protect, you know,
05:54a herd of sheep in any way, shape or form.
05:56It's amazing how forgiving some of them are by the torment that I've,
06:01you know, with some that I've rescued
06:03and how they can just turn their lives around with the right care,
06:08the right nutrition, the right love and the right, you know,
06:12peace that they feel once they arrive here.
06:16You know, so, yeah, it's wonderful to see once they start turning around
06:22and then you walk in the paddock and there's a donkey
06:24that you couldn't get near for, you know, two months or so
06:28and it's following you around like a puppy dog.
06:30And you go, oh, yay, finally, you know.
06:34So, it's a wonderful feeling once they start to rehabilitate
06:37and become a donkey again and not be so scared.
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