 Welcome back to the ESAQ. I hope you're having a good time as we are and right about now we just want to talk about the welfare of donkeys. We've been talking about in the morning we were saying that young people need to get jobs they need to find a way of making a living and we know very well that using transportation via donkeys is one way that you can earn a living. I have Laura from Brook East Africa and I have Dr. Peter from Send A Cow and the steps we need the things we need to do so that we can ensure our donkeys are safe and they're giving us the best. So welcome so much to the show Laura. Kindly introduce yourself. So what you do in Brook East Africa? My name is Laura Cow, I work mostly with a partner, I engage with co-workers so they know how to take care of their donkeys. Okay, welcome. Thank you. Dr. Peter. We're in West Kenya looking especially the vulnerable, the small older and marginalized families. We are partnering with Brook East Africa to look at who can improve donkeys welfare. Because we appreciate that when someone has a good income feeding well then they can take care of donkeys. Okay, so tell us why we need our donkeys to be taken care of? In Kenya and for them to do any work they are supposed to do need energy and energy is got from when you take good care of this animal. For example, a donkey would need to eat or feed for it to get that energy. It needs to rest so that it can perform tomorrow's job well. A donkey just like any other animal or being may fall sick and it needs to be treated. It needs to be given healthcare services. So donkeys just like any other animals need to be taken good care of because we need that energy from them to do duties at home or in any institution where they are found. Okay. Can you tell me some of the challenges that most of the donkeys that we have around encounter? Let me start by talking about Brook East Africa. East Africa is an animal welfare charity organization working with nine partner organizations across East Africa. And our major work is to take care of the working equipments, particularly donkeys and mules in other eastern countries where they also have such animals. And our work is to transform the lives of these animals and ensure they are supporting the communities to earn their livelihood. Because when you look at communities in different areas, these animals to provide for their basic needs and also taking their children to school. And particularly when you look at the youth, there are some that are actually done by these donkeys on a daily basis. And as my colleague has put it, donkeys are very important because they contribute to the livelihoods of the communities. And it's all doing, yeah, yeah, directly. And that by taking care for us is very important. When you look at most of the communities, particularly in semi-arid areas. There we use these donkeys to fetch water. Other high potential areas are using the animals to transport goods from farms to their homes and also to the market. And this is a very important animal that is working to ensure that we live better. So as they act, they are faced with a number of challenges which are attributed to how people relate with them and how people take care of them. So they use the curry goods by pack. So you find that there are quite a number of welfare issues that are associated with animals. And some of these include injuries that cause wounds. Maybe a few of the community members don't really know how to go about a provision of some of the basic animal needs like feed, water and also medical services. So there are quite a number of issues that we try to address to make sure that the donkeys are able to support their communities maximum. Yes. So what are you doing? So that's to make sure that you ease in some of these burdens for people who have donkeys. Is an organization that is? Yeah, an organization that we look at it from different perspectives. One of it is engaging the donkeys owners and users who actually stay with animals like on a day-to-day basis. And you know donkeys don't take. So it's us who are supposed to ensure that we take care of them. And some of the things that we do with the communities is to give them the knowledge and skills is required for them to be able to ensure that their donkeys are taken care of appropriately. And this includes issues around provision of water, provision of care services, and also ensuring that they are used treatments that are not causing injuries to these animals. Yeah. And we don't only work with the donkeys owners because some of the issues related to donkeys are trivial to society at large. And how people animals like cutting them when maybe they trespass to other people's farms. And these are some of the things that we work with closely with the government, with the veterinary providers, so that we see how we ensure that the animals are taken care of. And another thing that we look at is the issue of policies that are related to livestock and ensure that the government, because we work closely with the government, particularly the policy, ensure that they are able to look at our laws so friendly to these animals. And my colleague, Peter, can also talk about what we do in terms of the veterinary service provision to these animals. Yeah. Okay. Tell us a bit about maybe some of the health issues that you come across as a vet in terms of donkeys. Okay, thank you. Some of the veterinary issues that we come across as we work in the community is my colleague has put we have cases of injuries. And these injuries are normally attributed to poor harnessing. Yeah. When these animals are loaded, if adequate adding is not provided, then answers are that the load is going to cause abrasions, wounds, which potential points of entry of pathogens. So number one is wounds. And secondly, we have some infectious conditions, diseases. Yeah. And these might vary from region to region. But most of them are vector-borne diseases that is transmitted by other parasites. For example, ticks, where we operate in western Kenya, we have people and other parasites. So there are quite a number of challenges in terms of infectious diseases. And then we also have hoof problems. I'm sure you might have come across animals with overgrown hooves. And do you can imagine that animal carrying a load when it cannot walk properly? So in such cases you will end up getting leg injury fractures. Yeah. Some hooves can also be picked with sharp objects, then developed inside. And where there is pulse, you know, it's very painful under the animal. Quite a lot of hoof conditions have just accumulated in the hoof, I've mentioned, among other conditions. Yeah. Okay. Laura, let's talk a bit about hydrate. There was a law that was put in place concerning hydrate. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah. In Kenya there has been a trade in donkey skin, particularly to export to the Asian countries, particularly to China. There has been existence of forced lotter houses in Kenya. The first one was established in 2016. And through the slaughterhouses, a number of donkeys were being slaughtered, almost a thousand per day in some instances. And looking at the number of donkeys in Kenya, the last census of 2009, the unpointed donkeys in Kenya. And when the analysis were slaughtering approximately 1,000 per day, it means that donkeys numbers are really reducing. And this is going to, was going to actually affect the communities that depend on their livelihood. And through a lot of support and interaction with the government, and also communities are coming out to air their issues to the government regarding the effects of the donkeys slaughter, the government came out strongly. And in March this year, we will revoke the licenses of the donkeys slaughterhouses that have been existing in Kenya. We, in 2023, given donkeys slaughterhouses was continuing, then all the donkeys will have been depleted by then. So for us, it's really appreciate that because the communities now can bounce back and continue doing what their work and are living from these animals. Laura is saying that the government has revoked the licenses of people who had slaughterhouses of donkeys because when the donkeys, the numbers go down and when the numbers go down, then that means people's livelihoods are being affected directly as we say it. And Laura, tomorrow is a special day for your organization and your partners as it is Wild Donkey Day. So what is it that you are celebrating tomorrow? Yes, just to mention that Brooke East Africa and her partner celebrate National Donkey Day every 10th of May annually. And it's an event that has been ongoing since 2006. And tomorrow I'll be marking 15 years of such celebration. And the reason why we celebrate these animals during that day is to recognize the donkeys as a working livestock and also highly contribution to their communities and also to the economy of Kenya at large. And we do this only as Brooke East Africa and her partners, but also with other animal welfare organization and also the other sector players when it comes to agriculture and livestock. And for this year, the main, we have actually been looking at it from different perspective. And besides the recognition of these animals as a key player to the improvement of the wealth, improvement of the communities, we are also celebrating the revocation of the slaughterhouses mentioned and also looking at the current situation that we are facing on the epidemic on COVID-19. I don't know how people think about these animal and how it's supporting the communities during this particular time. There are people who think of these animals to get water, not only in rural areas, but also in urban areas. There are some people who are relying on these animals during this time to provide water. Others are relying on needs to transport agricultural produce. And actually in other areas, we rely on those. We actually want to get to provide feed or put food to our table. And it tends to agriculture in some instances that donkeys come in handy to support the sector. So we are also celebrating these animals during the situation because they are being curfew and slowed down in terms of movement from one area to another. But the animals are really continue supporting us. And that's why we are celebrating them this year in that sense. And we have a broader theme for the day, which is donkeys power for resilient livelihood. And this is a donkeys partner for all seasons. And for sure a partner for all seasons looking at its culture and how it's supporting us to move in whichever circumstances. All right. Doctor. Kindly, as you wind up, could you give maybe an advisory to any donkeys owners out there who are watching on how to take care of their animals in a better way so that they can improve their livelihoods? We value donkeys as well have their value in our society. As you walk along Kenyan roads, you will definitely see donkeys pulling cuts. You will see donkeys carrying garrisons of firewood on their backs. So they are doing that for a reason. They are doing that to relieve our mothers of that heavy load. Okay. Otherwise they would carry it on their backs, on their heads. So if you lose that, so what we need to do with the farmers or donkeys owners one is to ensure that you give appropriate load. People usually ask how much load should a donkey carry? A donkey should carry a load that is not bigger than its live wage. For example, if a donkey is 100 kilograms, then it should not carry load that is over 100 kg. So if you give it more, it will struggle, you are going to exhaust its energy so tomorrow it will have no energy to do your work. Secondly, they also need to have time to eat. Every energy comes from food. So if you work with it throughout the day, you work with it from morning to evening and only leave it to feed at night when you are sleeping and you are not sure if it is eating then you will not have a donkey to help you do your work tomorrow. So as you work, make sure you give it some time to feed. And donkeys are very easy to feed because they just feed on grass. You only need to supplement things like mineral leaks so that it also gets all those necessary minerals. Another thing is that when you are loading or you are working with a donkey because most injuries come when our donkeys are working. So whenever you are working with your donkey, ensure that you keep it safe, avoid anything that can cause injury. For example, if you have to put a cart, ensure that you do appropriate padding so that you don't get wounds at the end of the day when the donkey is going to rest. Thirdly, another one is that we need to be doing what we call routine practices. Routine disease management practices. Like we do spray animals. So most times you will find that people tend to spray or deep cows and other animals and forget about donkeys. And in most cases, do these in the morning when donkeys are out working somewhere. So my plea is that let us ensure that we also spray donkeys against external parasites. Because if you don't and you spray other animals, when they mingle, there is likely that they are going to transmit these parasites to these animals that you spray. There is also another aspect of controlling parasites called deworming, the internal parasites. So these need to be done at least twice a year. So the parasites inside consume that food that the donkey eats. So if the donkey eats a little food and this little food is shared with the worms, then it means that donkey will be in a poor condition. It will have no energy to do your work. Laura, okay, he's back. Yes, okay, thank you so much. Laura, the country celebrated Labor Day just two weeks ago. Maybe as we wind up, you could tell us how the donkeys needed to be celebrated on that day as well. Yeah, we were actually celebrating donkeys during that day. We did it online, in online platforms. We actually call it the Invisible Worker. We call donkeys Invisible Worker or the Silent Worker. Because not many people recognize their contribution. And during the day, we are celebrating donkeys because of how they work. They are very hardworking and they always ensure that they are there to provide services to the community and the people who depend on them. So for us, as we celebrated the donkey, we are also doing it to also sensitize people on the importance of these animals and to also ensure that the community is out there irrespective of who you are. There is an importance of understanding that these animals have their needs and there are also animal welfare freedoms that are associated with these animals. And as Peter, my colleague was talking about what we need to do to ensure that the donkeys are okay, we look at it from the five animal welfare freedoms which are then carried by every listener to really be able to understand these freedoms so that the donkeys can... Okay, so thank you so much for the interview. We appreciate you for taking the time to talk to us, Laura and Dr. Peter. And we look forward to some good celebrations tomorrow. We also encourage you to follow us on Twitter using the hashtag the national donkey day. We will be having conversations around that and we would really like to encourage you to join the conversation as we talk about what's more. Alright, there you have it. Now as you've heard from Peter and Dr. Laura, we need to take care of our animals, very kindly feed them, make sure they are dewormed just the same way as you deworm yourselves. These are invisible workers as they have said and they need our care. Yes, so if you have a donkey at home, please take those guidelines and tomorrow let's join them in the celebration of World Donkey Day. So we are taking a short musical break but don't you go anywhere. More visa kits coming your way.