If you're interested in more information, you can find their website here: The Donkey Sanctuary. It is really quite heart-warming to see how this organization is helping to rescue unwanted and abused donkeys and give them a wonderful home. Right now they have around 100 donkeys, 60 of them on the sanctuary property and 40 of them fostered out. The property itself is absolutely beautiful and I definitely want to go back when it's not such a hot day to explore the hiking trails and the duck ponds.
But for now, here are some shots of our day:
The sanctuary is a lovely 100 acre farm situated in Puslinch, Ontario.
The philosophy of the sanctuary is to allow the donkeys to live as naturally as can be. Unless an animal needs special attention, they are left in a herd to come and go in and out of the barn as they wish. This picture shows an area of the barn where around 25 of the donkeys were standing in the shade.
The Gandhi quote in the background reads: "The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated."
Drowsy in the shade.
It was fun to play with their huge ears, especially on this donkey since she loved having her ears scratched. However it was horrible to see some of the donkeys were missing ears they had lost to frostbite when they were neglected by previous owners.
Apparently donkeys form an egalitarian herd without the pecking order that horses have. However, they do tend to seek out one particular friend that they become closer to and those two will spend time grooming each other and generally looking out for each other.
A strange "wooly donkey" has snuck in the barn to have some hay! I particular liked the sign in the background which reads "Please do not feed fingers to the donkeys."
