17th October 2005
Leading British equine welfare charity the Brooke is helping to organise a life-saving ‘donkey train’ to take desperately needed food and medicines to Pakistan earthquake victims stranded in remote regions.
Blocked and damaged roads mean that many villages are now unreachable by land, with helicopter operations becoming increasingly difficult because of the appalling winter weather. The Brooke is co-ordinating with local relief authorities and the Pakistan army and the operation is planned to start this weekend.
The Brooke is planning to transport donkeys - and horses and mules - to Balakot in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier, which will be the centre of operations for the ‘donkey train’. Brooke vets will lead the ‘donkey train’ to areas that need aid. As well as carrying supplies to people in need, the vets will treat livestock and working equine animals that need help, establishing temporary field clinics as necessary. The donkey train will also transport people needing urgent medical treatment.
The Brooke’s plans result from a reconnaissance mission to Balakot to assess how its expertise could be used to help people to restore their lives as quickly as possible. In addition to running the donkey train, the Brooke has also been asked to help people in Balakot to build temporary shelters for their animals. The Brooke is also establishing a mobile clinic to treat working equines and livestock at Shinkiari, just south of Balakot. This is expected to be up and running from Wednesday this week.
Mike Baker, the Brooke’s Chief Executive says, “In centuries gone by donkeys, mules and horses were the only means of transport and now once again we are depending on these animals to take aid to communities in desperate need.
“In particular, the veterinary aid our donkey train will bring to these stricken areas will be of paramount importance. Working animals and livestock are among the only possessions that many of the earthquake victims have left. In normal circumstances each horse or donkey alone provides an income for around six people - now they are of even greater importance as families struggle to rebuild their lives with winter fast closing in.”
The Brooke is the largest animal welfare organisation in Pakistan, and has been in operation in the country since 1991. Last year it helped a quarter of a million working horses, donkeys and mules across five regions of the country, including Peshawar a large city close to affected regions, and over the border in Jalalabad in Afghanistan.
The Brooke teams of highly specialised mobile vets work in Pakistan, and elsewhere in the world, to improve the health and welfare of hundreds of thousands of working horses, donkeys and mules across the developing world - animals that form the backbone of the economy for countless poor communities. The Brooke’s main thrust of its operations is providing free veterinary care and education programmes via a network of mobile units.
The Brooke has had experience of helping such communities in the past when it sent emergency veterinary teams to the Gujarat region of India in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in 2001, and in 2002 its Pakistan-based vets tended to stricken animals of Afghan refugees in camps on the Pakistan border.
To view pictures of the Brooke-organised 'donkey train' click here
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