“They told me that they felt we had descended from Heaven”

With the help of our wonderful vet, Dr. Nour, we were able to recently hold a mobile clinic in the Palestinian West Bank, in order to ease some of the terrible suffering for these poor, poor animals.

Dr Nour’s report: "The clinic was near Qalqilya city. The animals' owners needed help desperately as they depend on their donkeys for work. They told me that they felt we had descended from Heaven. Their animals were in such a terrible condition, a crowd of 26 animals attended the clinic including 1 mule and 2 work horses, the rest were donkeys.

All of them were in a poor state and I gave them antibiotics for skin lesions and eczema, eye inflammation and back wounds and injuries. Some of them had terrible hoof problems and I tried to help as much as I could but the farrier wasn’t able to go with me and the work they needed required special farriery tools. I could do the work maybe if I had the right tools but we don’t have them.

Many of them needed their teeth filing and I did what I could but I really need a new mouth gag because it’s a risk and not really safe to try to rasp teeth without it.”

It can feel like trying to fight our way through a losing battle but no matter the setbacks and the darkness, however futile it can be, we know we have to try to soldier on against the odds for the sake of those poor, innocent creatures. Without us and our little bit of help, they have absolutely nothing.

Despite our lack of sufficient funds, staff and resources, and the fact that so much of this work is done almost voluntarily, we feel it is better to ease the suffering even for just a moment, than do nothing at all.

We do so want and need the help and backing of bigger organisations that do similar work in other Middle Eastern countries. Yet they, too, have their funding problems as a result of the impact of the worldwide pandemic, and their projects are far more extensive than ours. All we can try to do is what we are able to, in our little corner of the world.

Anything that you can give towards helping us in this mission that seems impossible, would be so deeply valued and appreciated. It’s vital that we keep holding these small clinics, however basic. The costs of veterinary medicines have to be covered and a small amount given to those who give their time to do this work in terribly hot temperatures, and often amidst the total indifference from many of the owners.

A heartfelt thank you to our vet, Dr. Nour Kalabani, who does this work with all his heart.

Apologies for the quality of some of the photographs. We are reliant upon onlookers to take these photos using our vet’s phone, there’s no proper photographer involved.