Today a team from ERF travelled down into the Dordogne to rescue a 2 year donkey, Titos.

Last week he lost his 3 donkey friends to the butcher and was just waiting til the next meat lorry turned up for him…..luckily he now won’t have to endure that fate.

The place we collected him from can only be described as a discard centre for the sick,old and of no further use before they get sold for meat. There were old horses and ponies that did not deserve to end their latter years neglected and uncared for….for some being put to sleep at home would have been a luxury due to them. There was an old appaloosa gelding that was definitely blind in one eye but possibly in both judging by the way he nearly walked over us. An old grey horse that was now not much more than a skeleton and had melanomas stood looking lifeless and depressed. A lot of the horses (and dogs!) had ticks and mange,including Titos. What we also found distressing was learning that the Shetlands he had there either went for meat or to the Laboratory for animal testing, something that we are now going to be looking into further.

Titos will now be wormed, have his skin treated (as he has several bald patches), be de-liced and de-ticked and will see the farrier and dentist.He has a very sweet nature and is extremely gentle.

We will post some more photos over the next few days.If you would like to offer Titos a home when he is ready to be re-homed or you would like to   to help towards his care we would be very grateful.