Three donkeys can't just disappear from their secure paddock.....

Rocker

Well they did.  And they have been found but that is getting way ahead of myself.

My brother and his wife keep three male donkeys, rescued elderly animals, on their farm.  The donkeys are provided with a paddock, fresh water and free access to a shed.  Mrs Rocker and myself pay for their veterinary costs.  We also pay for their three times per year feet paring.  They are considered pets and my sister in law feeds them with slices of bread which they love.

A couple of nights ago around 10.00 p.m., my brother rang me to say that the donkeys were gone.  They were not in adjoining fields and for all intents and purposes, had disappeared.  Even though it was dark and very cold, a search was organised, mainly to check the fields beyond the adjoining fields around the paddock where the donkeys were kept.  Nothing was found, no trace of the animals anywhere.  Critically no tell tale droppings or hoof marks.

The next day Mrs Rocker contacted the Gardai to report the missing donkeys.  The Gardai had a report of three donkeys wandering on the main road about 2½ Km from my brothers farm around 5.00 a.m. the previous morning.  The Gardai put the animals into an adjacent field.  My sister in law confirmed that the donkeys were theirs and set about arranging for them to be transported home.  All good news.

Mrs Rocker contacted The Donkey Sanctuary to try to find an explanation for the events of the previous days.  It seems that gangs scan the countryside for donkeys and steal them during the night.  They are loaded into trailers and a couple of Kms away from their field, the animals are examined.  The gangs are looking for female donkeys for breeding purposes, males are of no use and are unloaded and left to fend for themselves.  Which appears to be what happened in this case.

The good news is that the animals are unhurt and unaffected by their experience.  The frightening thought is that my brother and his wife are responsible for the animals they keep on their farm.  If there had been an accident on the road involving the donkeys, my brother and his wife are deemed responsible as their animals were on the road.  Even though the animals were removed from their paddock by other person(s) and transported to where they were found, my brother and his wife are still deemed responsible......

There are a lot of nasty people out there.  This time nothing serious happened.  But it could have.  Shudders.......

Ravenous

As this story started I was concerned they'd been taken for their skins... not such a problem in the West yet, but it does happen (elsewhere) apparently...

Glad they got the critters back.

Hootsmon

Somebuddy had a key tae the paddock

Phil_aka_Pip

hootsmon said:

Somebuddy had a key tae the paddock

or the security was otherwise not as good as you'd like it to be.

there are some bastards about

Legionreturns

Glad they're safe and sound. I've got a friend who works for the donkey sanctuary. He says the same thing about females.

Also, flying, talking donkeys...

SRich

Donkey See, Donkey Do......

..........never underestimate the lock cracking antics of the average donkey.

Ravenous

Legionreturns said:

Glad they're safe and sound. I've got a friend who works for the donkey sanctuary. He says the same thing about females.

Also, flying, talking donkeys...

Now that's one donkey I WOULD like to see skinned & made into an eastern potion!

Paul_C

Glad they're safe, they could have been machine-gunned like Shergar  

midlifecrisis

did this happen about the time of the irish donkey fetishist fayre?

Carew

some ppl are such scum

CarpeDiem

I'm pleased the donkeys were safely recovered. Is it worth fitting discrete tracker devices to them? Alternatively, fitting something that denotes they are males? I'm making the assumption that the brainless individuals that steal donkeys don't take a quick peak at their undercarriage before removing them from a field.

Funkfingers

You might have thought that it would take a matter of seconds to distinguish male from female - even in pitch darkness!

TimmyO

3 missing donkeys is probably what passes for a career-making case for a rural Gardai ! 

Legionreturns

Funkfingers said:

You might have thought that it would take a matter of seconds to distinguish male from female - even in pitch darkness!

Especially with a name like yours!

Dominic

Glad they are safe but I would strongly suggest that they are not fed bread...........it is very likely to give them serious colic or a torsion as the bread/yeast content ferments in the stomach .........either can be fatal quite easily.Even small quantities can do this.I assume that they are gelded as males living together .
 We used to have serious problems with drunk donkeys .....they would raid the orchard for windfall apples as did the Shetlands and having gorged  themselves the apples ferment in the stomach and they get pissed.......this is also very dangerous for them in the same way bread is.

RandallFlagg

I would post here but I might end up feeling an ass...

Glad they turned up safe and back under care.