His legs were bound by barbed wire and his body was a bloody bag of bones. Fenson bought the animal from its Arab owner and cared for it at the sanctuary. She formed an extraordinary friendship with the animal and when she returned back to England to take up her job as stewerdess she left him in what she hoped would be good hands. Donk died of a heart attack last year, but her experience with him and the fate of hundreds of abandoned and abused donkeys she encountered on her trips to visit him, have inspired her to establish the refuge in the Holy Land. She points out that instead of being honored and respected for its deep religious significance, the donkey is seen by Jews and Moslems alike as being stupid and worthless.
Donkeys are there simply to be abused.
One woman told me how she was travelling in an Arab taxi to Jericho and a heavily pregnant donkey mare was crossing the road. The taxi driver did not reduce speed but put his foot on the accelerator and ploughed straight into the animal causing severe inujries - her stomach split open and the feotus fell out. Another animal I saw had had its ears chopped off just for fun. Fenson has decided she can not go on with her life without trying to alleviate some of this suffering and make the people of the region understand the animal's basic needs - food, water and proper care, not physical abuse. Fenson and Findlay hope that if the donkey is found, their efforts to rescue him will gain regional and worldwide attention to the senselessness and cruelty of violence in the Middle East and elsewhere.