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News
from the
Nerja Donkey Sanctuary
Nerja's best kept
secret
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Click to visit the
Donkey Sanctuary
website |
We
are just a gentle five minute stroll from the town center, just 100
metres past the famous Nerja arches. So if you are walking from town,
just walk over the lower bridge on the left hand side and follow the
pavement to the end and you have found the sanctuary (although you can
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one of our many dog and donkey walkers you may come across busy
exercising our rescued animals).
Apart from holding
onto a dog or a donkey, they will have bright yellow jackets on
which say, in Spanish and English, that they are from the Nerja
Donkey Sanctuary with animals on exercise.
Or if you venture
onto another of Nerja’s hidden treasures, the little known and
usually, delightfully deserted El Playazo beach with its lovely
small family run restaurants where you can still experience the
real Spain, you will almost certainly also come across one of our
eco donkeys out and about on its rounds collecting unused food to
be recycled by our own residents at the sanctuary. |
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Of course when you
visit the sanctuary, apart from our usual collection of rescued
donkeys, horses and mules, you will also get a very warm welcome
from our other assorted rescued animals also waiting for new
homes, although occasionally, our rescued dogs get upset when a
squatter attempts to move in on them such as young Pinky (pictured
left) who is a a very inquisitive young man, who creates havoc
wherever he goes.
We of course welcome
visitors and are open every day of the year but apart from
visiting us and having fun with our rescued animals, you can also
help out by grooming both our rescued big animals such as donkeys,
horses or mules as well as dogs and numerous puppies that always
need a wash and spruce up. |
These are just some of the
regular daily tasks that need undertaking to help out our more regular
volunteers. If you can spare an hour or two, you are always very
welcome to drop in for a bit of mucking out! Seriously though, we
always need dog walkers in particular to exercise our rescued dogs.
They are all well behaved and walk happily with you, although some can
be more of a handful than others, but we will advise you which dog is
best suited for your walk.
Please remember that last
walks are 2 pm weekdays and noon weekends, which can often be very
busy so we can’t always guarantee a dog is available - the earlier the
better is our advice, especially as we don’t mind if you want to take
a dog for a long walk, or even with you when you go to lunch. We have
a list of dog friendly restaurants and bars where our dogs on exercise
and their walkers are always welcome.
Also, we have a recently
rescued large pig called Hillary. During her prolonged convalesence,
Hilary unfortunately found not only where we keep our dog biscuits and
dog treats but how to squeeze in and out of the storage area
unnoticed. As it took us a while to work out the coincidence of our
diminishing dog biscuits and the ever increasing size of Hilary, she
therefore is now also available for much needed exercise, honestly. We
have a special harness and lead for her, although don’t expect to be
going for a brisk walk as she, well, rather meanders along…
It is a little known fact that over the last 13 years, our volunteer
rescue crews have undertaken over 6,500 rescue calls. Not just for the
Guardia Civil traffic and environmental departments but also for many
local police forces, town halls and the general public, such as rescue
number 6,557 rescued from an urbanization in Nerja on April 6 in
response to requests for help from local residents who reported him as
a rather exhausted and elderly goat, collapsed in their urbanisation.
| The residents had
erected an umbrella to keep the sun off him and were providing him
with food and water but as he appeared to be unable to stand, they
asked us to attend, which we gladly did. We felt his condition was
such that we had to take him into care. He was very ill and our
vet had diagnosed him, on arrival, as having eaten poison of some
sort, possibly from a nearby field or garden sprayed with weed
killer, and this had caused him to collapse with serious paralysis
of his limbs. It was a all a bit touch and go as we had to decide
whether to put him to sleep to avoid any further suffering but,
odd as it may sound, he just kept giving us that look that said he
somehow wanted another chance and he was willing to fight for
life, so our vet agreed that we should try an expensive course of
treatment to see if we could save him. |
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Whilst it is early days,
he seems to be progressing slowly and surely and although he spends
half a day suspended in a sling to help circulation in his legs, he is
eating and drinking well, and makes welcoming noises whenever we go to
attend to him and still shows that strong will to survive. We will
help him in whatever way we can as we never put down any animal just
on grounds of cost.
The sanctuary and our rescue crews are all volunteers and we run
everything including the sanctuary and animal hospice, outreach and
rescue project on a miniscule budget of about €6,000 a month, almost
half of which goes on our vet fees, medicines and rescue costs, so it
|
Geoff of MG Rox |
really helps when
people fundraise for us and we were very lucky last month to have
two events in the same month.
The first was a
wonderful dog race night organised by Derek Harvey of Soltalk
in conjunction with
Dave at Bar El Playazo who kindly laid on free food. Entertainment
was supplied free too by Geof of MG Rox. The dog race
entertainment was provided by Rob Wolstenholme. And the evening
raised a fantastic €880, which is going to be spent on new animal
shelters, something badly needed.
The second event
was sponsored by the German Shanty-Chor Andalucia and was held at
the Nerja Cultural Centre and it raised a further €500 which is
going to be spent on new fences and helping fund yet another
emergency puppy area. |
Our thanks to all those
businesses and firms in and around Nerja, Torrox, and other places
that continue to help and support us and our thanks especially to
Editor and Publisher Derek Harvey and all at Soltalk
who publish our articles for free, without whose help we would have
closed our doors long ago.
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Volunteers wanted
Apart from our 24/7 free
rescue service, where it is a must that volunteers speak Spanish, we
always need volunteers for our sanctuary for clearing up, feeding,
grooming, greeting visitors, boot sales at the Sunday market, and many
other projects, but we are specifically appealing for volunteers to
help our eco donkey project of collecting unused bread and vegetables
from nearby local restaurants.
Volunteers for this job need to commit on a regular basis,
(although you can job share) but allow 4/5 hours from start to
finish, which allows you time for a leisurely lunch, before
returning to the sanctuary – contact Gerry on 95 296 7547 if you
are interested in volunteering for the eco donkey project.
Our opening times are 10.00 am to 4.00 pm weekdays (sometimes we have
to close earlier
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due to rescue call-outs)
and 10.00 am to 1.00 pm at weekends. We are open every day of the year
and admission is free. You can find us at E2 on
the Soltalk map
here.
If you can’t visit us this
time, then you can find out more about us, or even adopt a donkey or
other animal or donate by debit or credit card or PAYPAL via our
website at
here,
and can email us here.
For information on
volunteering or opening hours, call Kate on (+34) 664 558 135.
For rescues, (+34) 618 46 7575 and for fund raising or helping at the
car boot stall, Irene on (+34) 690 047 350.
You can donate in sterling
or euros, cheques payable to Nerja Donkey Sanctuary, Apartado de
Correos 414, Nerja, 29780, Malaga, Spain. Bank transfers to Banco
Popular Nerja No: 0075-1458-25 060-00108-86 IBAN 700751458250600010886
BIC
The Nerja Donkey Sanctuary is the founder member of Asociación de
Malaga de los Santuarios del Burro - a registered charity dedicated to
defending the environment and the rescue and care of animals,
registered number 7502 and NIF G92826304.
JIM
HORNE
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