Tikobane Trust's August activity

AAA partner group, Tikobane Trust have sent us their update for their August activities:

"The month of August was not a good month for our women lead mobile team, we responded to 6 emergencies, two donkeys were found dead as they were tied together to discourage them from straying away, many people who were employed in tourism have been left jobless as the tourism industry has been affected by the corona virus, people have resorted to trading firewood and charcoal using donkey-pulled carts. Many traders don’t care about the welfare of the donkeys, only the need make a living for their families. Recently we rescued a donkey with a fractured ankle that was on a cart, the wound was so bad with maggots and their owner did not even notice.
A donkey with a fractured ankle with a grass made bandage was also rescued from a cart.
Summer is a bad time for donkeys, it is during this time that donkeys are attacked and killed by lions and hyenas, as many people don’t keep their donkeys enclosed at night. Because of the corona pandemic people are using donkeys all day long and let them graze during the night, putting the lives of donkeys at risk. We are working hard to distribute more neck reflectors to protect donkeys as reflectors scare predators at night.
In spite of the corona virus making lives hard for working donkeys and people depending on them, we are seeing positive changes in harness wounds. People are now making sure they use proper harnessing and padding, even the ones with poor harnesses make sure they pad them using any possible material to give comfort to working donkeys.
Our animal sanctuary is receiving more and more donkeys by the day, many donkeys are over worked by their owners trying to make a living during the corona virus pandemic. We try to accommodate and care for every abused and ill-treated donkey we meet, however with the shortage of water at our sanctuary we are limited.
September to November are the hottest and driest months in the southern part of Zimbabwe, with many people involved in donkey cart pulled trading during the hot day. We are going to establish a drinking point in one of the busiest trading townships were traders will have their working donkey drink water and improve the welfare of working donkeys."