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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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Animal Support Donations
The Story of a little donkey named Marco...
We need your help, but first listen to my story...
The year 2007 began for ANIMAL PEOPLE with a scramble to finish the January/February edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper and get to India for the fourth Asia for Animals conference - cosponsored by ANIMAL PEOPLE and hosted by the Blue Cross of India in Chennai on January 9-14. This was the biggest Asia for Animals ever, with 350 delegates from all over Asia.
I left for India early so as to visit several organizations before the conference, while Merritt Clifton, editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE, made his plans to visit different sanctuaries after the conference ended.
A priority for me this visit was the Wildlife S.O.S. dancing bear sanctuary, founded by Kartick Satyanarayam and Geeta Seshamani, who is also the president of Friendicoes Society for the Eradication of Cruelty in Delhi. Geeta had arranged a car to drive us from Delhi to Wildlife S.O.S. on the outskirts of Agra, a four-hour journey.
Delhi, the capital of India, is a very orderly city. I had been there in 1997, when the Animal Birth Control program was adopted as official Indian policy for dealing with rabies and street dogs. At that time, wherever we traveled in India, it was impossible to look in any direction without seeing at least one street dog and usually more. This time, nine years later, we could go a mile or more in Delhi without seeing a dog, and they generally looked to be in good condition.
The farther we drove from Delhi, however, the more dogs we saw. More of them were mothers with puppies, rooting in garbage heaps along with feral pigs. We saw camel caravans resting beside the road, a sight that seemed to be ancient except that the carts pulled by the camels had automotive tires. The camels seemed to pull their loads easily, as did most of the bullocks, but the many small ponies pulling carts all seemed to struggle with heavy loads, and many of them were being lashed with sticks and whips to make them go faster.
After we had been on the road for about an hour, I saw a donkey up ahead, nibbling on dry weeds growing beside the paved road. Passing by, I could see that the donkey's left hind hoof was completely turned over, as if the leg had been snapped above the hoof. I told Geeta what I had seen and asked what could be done. She explained that old or injured donkeys were often abandoned beside the road by their owners when they could no longer work. There were many brick kilns along the Agra road, and donkeys were overloaded with bricks and would often loose balance and fall under the heavy weight. Sometimes when they fall, they stay on the ground, refusing to get up no matter how hard they are beaten... giving up on life, and dying dispirited. It was a story I had heard before.
Geeta explained that she had dreamed of having an equine veterinary unit going up and down the Delhi-Agra corridor, tending donkeys and horses and teaching more humane handling to the drivers.
I continued to see donkeys and ponies in distress for the next three hours of the trip, until we turned off the road at the bear sanctuary.
The sights were much the same the next day driving back to Delhi. It was getting dark as we got closer to the city, and the traffic was heavier. I don't remember if I was looking for the donkey with the broken hoof... more likely I was hoping that I wouldn't see him. But there he was beside the road, not having moved more than a few feet overnight. As we drove by, the donkey lifted his head up, pulled his lips back and seemed to bray piteously - but the sound was drowned out by the din of motors and horns honking. I knew it was one of those scenes that would haunt me forever.
Entering a situation with the knowledge that there will be much suffering to be seen and little to do about it, I do my best to go into an objective frame of mind - akin to the state of denial, but instead of filtering out what is disturbing, doing my best to take it all in and postponing the normal emotional reaction.
But sometimes an animal pierces the emotional veil. That is what happened when the donkey seemed to cry out.
I hesitated a few seconds before telling the driver to stop the car, because I wasn't sure what we could do to help the donkey. Geeta and Kartick had returned to Delhi the night before, but their assistant Vasuda was with us. I told her that she would have to call Geeta in Delhi and extract a promise that someone would be sent for the donkey or else I would have to stay there on the road. I knew it was farther away from Delhi than Friendicoes would normally be able to go to rescue an animal, but I offered to pay for all costs. While Vasuda got Geeta on the phone and explained the situation, we walked back to the donkey. He was trying to eat patch of shriveled, dusty grass, but it was hard for him to keep his balance enough to graze. I pulled up some grass and offered it to him, but he was afraid of us and hobbled away as best he could. We kept our distance until Vasuda came from a shop carrying bread and carrots, and this feast the donkey could not resist. As he ate from the pile of food, a crowd of men gathered around us. Vasuda got one of them, the tea wallah, to agree to look after the donkey until the next day when an ambulance would be sent from Delhi. I wasn't sure the man took us seriously or really believed that a truck was going to be sent for a broken-down donkey, but it was the best we could do, so we drove on to Delhi.
I had to catch a flight out the next morning, but the donkey rescue was planned for later in the day. The story had a happy ending, but with a very unexpected twist, as related by Geeta Seshamani:
"By the time the Friendicoes van had picked up the donkey the next day, it was already getting dark and a foggy mist covered the roads leading to Gurgaon where the Friendicoes Sanctuary is located. Visibility was poor and it was bitterly cold, but we wanted Kim's donkey, whom she christened Marco, to be settled in his new home as quickly as possible, so the Friendicoes van continued the journey.
"Suddenly our headlights revealed a motorcycle sprawled across the road, the rider laying still in the middle of the road. The van driver and his team rushed to see if the man in the road was alive. Not only was he still alive, it was Chintan, one of our sanctuary workers, and a very young boy. He had been going for some materials for a repair when a hit and run driver had knocked his motorcycle down. Imagine the amazement of our staff. This poor boy would have died, either from exposure to the cold or from being run over by other vehicles.
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"The unconscious Chintan was carried to the nearest hospital, Marco watching all this with his sad eyes and gentle demeanor. In India, we believe that every animal brings his own luck to his masters; we also believe a gesture of kindness to an animal can sometimes take our karmas away, and indeed Marco had brought us luck. He had saved a life even before he stepped onto our sanctuary. Our boys hugged him warmly and exclaimed that if we hadn't been taking Marco at an unusually late hour to the sanctuary, Chintan would probably have perished. For everyone at Friendicoes now, Marco is not just a rescued donkey but a great hero."
Marco the donkey will be safe for the rest of his life, but there are more donkeys there who need our help, and cart ponies also.
With the financial support of donors, we are making Geeta Seshamani's dream come true: to have a mobile equine unit going up and down the Delhi to Agra road.
The best news from India, which confirms reports from elsewhere in the developing world, is that Trap/Neuter/Return of street dogs works to humanely reduce the population just as TNR works for feral cats in the developed nations without street dogs. All of the Indian cities I visited on this trip I had been to either six or nine years ago, and where the ABC TNR program has been done systematically, there is a marked decrease in the number of dogs, with a visibly healthier population. Agra, where there is no dog sterilization program, was the heartbreaking exception. Merritt found the same thing in his visits to other Indian cities. There is no question about it: TNR is a success.
There should be more good news from India and other developing nations of Asia, and there would be, except that the growth of the human population and shifting economic demographics tends to outstrip what gains have made for animals. In India, poverty is the main reason for mistreatment of animals... in China, the problem is newfound affluence which is increasing meat consumption dramatically and creating new markets for fur.
In Africa, war, deforestation, and the appetite for bushmeat is decimating wildlife, and all the mainstream conservationists can think of to do about it is to encourage people to eat more dogs or to raise cane rats for meat.
Everywhere in the developing world, factory-style farming is on the rise, much of it fueled by first-world investment.
This may be a point in time at which keeping one's head above water is what passes for success. There are influences at work in the world that are beyond anyone's reach: human population growth, climate change, environmental degradation, war and terrorism. In the midst of all the bad news and dire forecasts, sometimes there seems to be little reason for hope.
But hope is our most precious possession, and it is what we can never afford to lose.
In one of the stories in the Bhagavad Gita, one of India's most sacred texts, Prince Arjuna despairs when he sees the forces arrayed against him. The night before the battle, he confesses his hopelessness to the god Krishna. Krishna responds to Arjuna, "Do your work and leave the outcome to me." In spite of the odds being against them, the forces of Arjuna were victorious.
At ANIMAL PEOPLE, we will keep on doing our work for the animals regardless of the magnitude of the problems we see... ...in spite of the forces arrayed against the armies of compassion.
With your help, we will continue our outreach to the developing world, the centerpiece of which is free distribution of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper to every animal charity in the world. There is no doubt that this is stimulating the growth of pro-animal activity in even the most remote places on the globe. We will keep access to our website and online archives free of charge and user-accessible 24/7. We will continue cosponsoring animal welfare conferences in the developing world and doing our best to mentor animal activists ourselves - helping them to acquire the skills they need to help animals wherever they are. We will continue providing what funding we can share to get worthwhile projects started, such as the equine unit needed help donkeys like Marco, who are waiting for help on the road to Agra.
But we could do so much more if we had more. That's where you come in: you make our work for animals possible with your generous financial support. Won't you please help us do more for the animals with a generous donation today? Please be as generous as possible... for the animals.
Sincerely,
Kim Bartlett, publisher
PS: Marco is now safe and loved - but there are SO many more donkeys and horses, dogs and cats, and other animals like him that need help. Please be as generous as you can.
Yes, Kim! I am with you and ANIMAL PEOPLE as you continue to help animals through outreach to the developing world - by free distribution of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper to every animal charity in the world, keeping access to your website and online archives free of charge and user-accessible 24/7, cosponsoring animal welfare conferences, mentoring animal activists AND helping fund worthwhile projects like the equine veterinary unit to help more animals like Marco who are suffering along the roads throughout the developing world.
Procedure:
Click on the button below. It will take you to our special donations area. YOU MUST HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT TO BE ABLE TO USE PAYPAL. (If you do not have an account, it takes about 5 minutes to set one up, and a link will be provided for this purpose as you click through the process. ("If you do not currently have a PayPal account...." ) Just be sure to read and follow the instructions carefully.
Our PAYPAL-enabled SUBSCRIPTIONS and DONATIONS page will allow you to make a donation through us to help animals all over the world via our network of sister organizations. These organizations include, of course, all the relief groups that would normally spring to action to help animal victims of ANY DISASTER ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
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