Dulce Dawn
Rescued: December 26, 2016

Just one day after Christmas, as our rescue centre battled flooding after a week of torrential rainfall, we received a call from San Javier’s policewoman to save a poor soul left terribly hobbled out in a field. This dear little donkey had even left to stand outside in the awful weather, alone and without any shelter.

This case went far beyond normal hobbling. While a lot of Spanish farmers do tether their horses in fields with rope, they don’t normally hobble them and certainly not like this. It was horrendous and barbaric and we suspect it was not even legal. Unfortunately, there is a certain group of people here who simply do not know or care about proper equine care.

We’d received many reports over the Christmas period about this donkey and had encouraged everyone to make an official police report, as this is the only way we can legally act to save an animal. Thankfully, someone did and because of their actions, police acted straight away, seizing the donkey and calling us in to cut her free and bring her home.

We believe this is how, together, we can all make a real difference towards animal welfare here in Spain. The police in our area will help, because they know our rescue centre is here to take seized equines.

Her case even attracted international attention.

We named this little donkey Dulce Dawn. “Dulce” means sweet in Spanish, and she seems to have quite the sweet tooth. And “Dawn” was suggested by long-time supporter Jackie Looseley, as the donkey arrived just before the dawn of 2017 and on the dawn of her new life.

Dulce Dawn had survived quite an ordeal. She’s absolutely beautiful, but has quite a lot of scarring on her front legs where she’s been hobbled, probably for most of her life.