Shropshire Magazine

Life can be hard in countries like Egypt, where many poor donkeys trudge for hours every day pulling loads of bricks.

Shirley Tart meets an inspirational animal welfare worker

Even the hardest heart is moved by small, bony donkeys struggling in some hot spot. Barely able to put one ill-cared-for foot in front of another, they wearily drag themselves and their obscenely heavy loads day after blistering day.

It looks as though they are being worked quite literally to death – and sometimes they are.

Yet so often, the working animals are neglected not because of cruelty but out of ignorance by people living in abject poverty whose very lifeline involves being able to move their goods around. A slender, gentle donkey may be their only way.

We who still pride ourselves on being a nation of animal lovers and protectors, know of the rotten eggs among us. The abandoned puppies, the cats burned for fun, farm animals secreted away in horrific conditions, all make daily headlines and bring a nation to tears.

But look across the globe to so many countries where the poorest people try to sustain ever-growing families and where a donkey, a cow, a few barely feathered birds, become the difference between life and death.

From our comfortable perches, it is all too easy to criticise and label those trying to bridge that frightening chasm, as owners cruelly exploiting worn out little animals.

But talk to Jenny Lack, Shropshire’s great ambassador for The Brooke, the UK’s leading overseas equine welfare charity, and you see how the rest of us can help without damning whole communities for whom basic survival is a nightmare.

Jenny, from Plealey near Pontesbury, has been a devoted and committed worker for The Brooke for more than 20 years and has raised many thousands of pounds to help fund and underpin the charity.

Its aim is simple – to improve the lives of horses, donkeys and mules working in the poorest parts of the world, animals forming the backbone of the economy in many developing countries and supporting poor communities where many people earn less than a dollar a day.

Difference

Jenny Lack, at home with a much-loved rescue friend.

The Brooke’s mobile vet teams and community animal health workers now provide free treatment to animals and train animal owners, dealers, farriers, saddlers, feed sellers, harness and cart makers. They operate across 10 countries in Asia, Africa, Central America and the Middle East, and the enormous difference The Brooke makes is down to the kindness and generosity of supporters as well as the dedication, care and compassion of local vets and community workers.

Around 800 highly skilled staff work directly in the field and their goal is that, by 2016, two million suffering horses, donkeys and mules which need help most, will be reached.

The charity says: “Last year our dedicated vets and community animal health workers reached an astonishing 730,000 hardworking horses, donkeys and mules. We hope to reach even more toiling in unforgiving environments such as India’s sweltering brick kilns, Egypt’s hectic and hazardous markets and Ethiopia’s fields and farms.”

But they can only do it with our support.  And people like Jenny Lack, retired head of maths at Shrewsbury High School, admirably demonstrate that ‘help at a distance’.

Though Jenny has gone a massive step further. Last year, she joined a party of supporters and visitors to see first-hand work being done across Egypt where the charity began 75 years ago. And while work is indeed still needed, she was greatly heartened by today’s better conditions, with owners better caring for their animals and going to a Brooke vet when help is needed.

The original Cairo base still carries the sign ‘Old Warhorse Hospital’ founded in 1930 when Dorothy Brooke, wife of a British Army major general, was horrified at conditions in which the working animals were living. She was even more appalled to find that the poor, walking skeletons were former war horses of British, Australian and American forces. All had seen First World War service but were then abandoned or sold into hard labour in Cairo. Dorothy’s first heartfelt appeal in a British newspaper brought in the equivalent of £20,000 to help end the suffering of these once-proud horses.

Within three years, she had set up a committee and bought 5,000 of the ex-war horses. Most were old, in the final stages of collapse and had to be humanely put down. But thanks to Dorothy, all ended their lives peacefully and with care at the end. She knew her work must continue – thousands of horses, donkeys and mules toiled and suffered in Cairo alone – and in 1934, Dorothy Brooke founded the ‘Old War Horse Memorial Hospital’ with the promise of free veterinary care for all the city’s working horses and donkeys . . . The Brooke was born.

Now, people like Jenny Lack pick up the baton to fund and support all those working in the wake of the great Dorothy Brooke.  And though things have improved, there is still much work to be done. For instance, Jenny says “Conditions at brick kilns are Dickensian. Two million bricks are made there every month and go to all parts of the country. Nearly 2,000 donkeys and mules are used to transport the bricks inside the kilns, ready for firing. Young boys work with them and live on site. The children have no opportunity to go to school and both children and animals work 12-hour shifts, even in summer when the temperature can reach 50C.

Better

“Ten years ago, when the Brooke started visiting the kilns, animals would be literally worked to death with no veterinary care. Now, Brooke mobile teams visit most days and conditions are very much better. Kiln owners use tractors to carry the wet bricks, but because the entrances are so small they still need animals when loading them. Incidentally, the method of making bricks is exactly the same as that shown on TV’s Victorian Farm, filmed at Acton Scott. The Brooke is liaising with an Egyptian children’s charity to set up a ‘school’ on site so the boys can receive basic education, including animal husbandry.”

Jenny Lack with cards she makes to help The Brooke, as well as bags made from cat-food pouches!

But wounds from ill-fitting tack and beatings are still common, education is still so badly needed, fundraising across the world is ever more vital. So how encouraging that along with Jenny – nominated as the charity’s Most Inspirational Fundraiser of the Year – and her long-term campaign to raise both funds and awareness, Shropshire also has a couple of young enthusiasts dedicated to the Brooke charity.

Courtney Clarke, aged 11, of Marche near Ford and Becky Bruce, who is 15, and from Pulverbatch, were both nominated as Young Fundraiser of the Year and all three were at the Clarence House awards ceremony before Christmas where the charity’s president, the Duchess of Cornwall, praised the work they do. Becky, for instance, climbed the Wrekin with bricks on her back for Brooke’s 2008 Horse in Need campaign to raise awareness of the animals’ toil.

Jenny’s fundraising includes hand-made pressed flower cards and bespoke bags she creates out of cat-food pouches. One especially caught the Duchess’s attention and now hangs in Jenny’s kitchen!

The hearts of those committed to making life better for faithful beasts of burden lie in the dust and heat of other lands. But if the Brooke story touches our hearts, we can all help make a difference.

• Check out The Brooke charity at www.thebrooke.org, and to help local fundraising, call Jenny Lack on 01743 790343.