Changing working animals’ lives
Thanks to Together for Animals supporters, SPANA has been able to provide more than 310,000 free treatments to working animals across the globe in the last year. SPANA’s dedicated staff treat hardworking donkeys, horses, camels and elephants for a wide range of injuries, illnesses and disease, including providing lifesaving surgery.
In Morocco alone, SPANA’s five centres open their doors to over 5,000 suffering animals every month. One of the animals helped by SPANA in the last 12 months is Arika.
Arika the donkey is essential to the lives of her owner, Hassan, his wife and their five children. The young donkey helps to pull produce to and from the market and collects drinking water for the family each day. When Arika became pregnant, Hassan knew his donkey would need to get plenty of rest for several months, but in the long term it would be a blessing to have an extra set of hooves to help support the family’s livelihood.
When the day finally came, the new foal, named Zine, was born with a knee deformity that meant he wasn’t able to walk or even stand properly. Four weeks into his life, it was clear the situation wasn’t improving and Hassan was becoming increasingly worried that the foal would struggle to survive without expert treatment.
Thankfully Hassan’s neighbour told him about SPANA and he decided to make the 50km journey to the centre in Marrakech, Morocco. The vets applied a splint and bandages to each of Zine’s legs, and cared for the foal and his mother for a two-week period. When no improvement was seen, the vet made the decision to operate and correct the defects once and for all. The operation was a success and, after some ongoing aftercare, Zine was finally able to walk normally.
Hassan, Arika’s owner, said: “My foal is very important to me. Without SPANA, my foal couldn’t be treated as I can’t afford veterinary fees and long-term care.”
Vulnerable animals like Zine would struggle to survive without access to free veterinary care. With your valuable support, SPANA is not only able to provide this lifeline, but can also continue building a more compassionate future for working animals by training owners and educating children.
Thanks to you, SPANA is able to reach many more sick and injured animals, and equip owners with the knowledge to prevent unnecessary suffering in the future.