Ade a big difference
Daily Express Saturday December 24 2016 Tracy’s life but with annual running costs of £20,000 she urgently needed to raise funds.
Her first “open day” was a resounding success. Thousands arrived for a celebrity charity auction, run by two local retired ladies, and soon it was an annual event.
The Queen Mother donated gifts of bone china, silver teaspoons and travel rugs. Deborah Kerr donated a pair of gloves she had worn in the film The King And I. Sir Anthony Hopkins offered film costumes. Sir Michael Caine donated signed ties and Sir Paul McCartney – whose wife Linda was an ardent supporter – continued to send items for auction after her death.
But the donkeys kept on arriving – Tracy could never turn an animal away despite her rocketing veterinary bills – and she soon realised she needed more land. “People think they can have a donkey and just leave it in a field without getting the care it deserves,” she says. The truth, she explains, is that they need companionship and kindness as much as they need food.
After 10 years of running the sanctuary the couple sold their house near Nottingham and bought a derelict farm with 28 acres of lush green pasture near Huttoft in Lincolnshire, 11 miles from Skegness where since Victorian times donkeys have given rides on the sands.
Originally the donkeys used were draught animals but increasing public awareness of donkey welfare has led many companies to stop the practice. “If you see donkeys tired and laying down to sleep it usually means they are used as a moneymaking exercise,” says Tracy. “Their backs can go if they give too many rides. It’s heartbreaking.”
But the donkeys she helps come from a variety of backgrounds and in Alan’s case she believes that he was probably left behind in the car park by travellers.
“Alan was actually rescued in 2009, shortly after Christmas, and I like to think we gave him a festive miracle. He was in a desperate state and I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t turned up in time. Hearing about a mistreated donkey never fails to upset me. The years haven’t desensitised me to that. If anything it hits me more every single time.”
She will never forget the moment she first saw Alan who had been tied to a flickering lamppost next to overgrown bushes strewn with empty cans and cigarette ends. “My heart melted as I took in the adorable tuft of mane that flopped over his eyes,” she remembers. “There was no sign of food or water but at least he was standing up.”
Tracy gently held out a ginger biscuit which he snaffled up. She loosened the rope and spoke soothingly of the life that lay ahead: green grass, warmth and friends.
He stepped without a fuss into the horsebox. “There was something about him that worried me. It was as if his spirit had been completely broken,” she recalls. “Unlike horses and mules, donkeys aren’t naturally waterproof. If the wet weather penetrates their coat they can go downhill in just a few days.”
SHE named him Alan for his stoic soul and her vet estimated that he was two-anda-half years old when she found him. Soon he had seen the farrier and the equine dentist and Tracy dealt with the lice that were inhabiting his threadbare coat. But Alan was still depressed – until he saw the other donkeys that is.
“He wandered over to the gate where some of my naughtiest donkeys were nibbling at the grass.”
One by one the other donkeys came up to the gate to get a good look at Alan in a friendship-forming ritual. “I covered my ears as he let out a roar of sound. ‘Alan’s finally found his voice’ I said, laughing at the assault on my ears. And he hasn’t stopped since – I’ve never heard a bray like his.”
Tomorrow, after seven happy years at the sanctuary, you can guarantee that Alan will be first into the Christmas Guinness bucket.
For information or to make a donation see radcliffedonkeys.com
To order Alan The Christmas Donkey: The Little Donkey Who Made A Big Difference by Tracy Garton (Macmillan, £9.99, free UK delivery) call the Express Bookshop with your card details on 01872 562310, or send a cheque or postal order to The Express Bookshop to: Donkey Offer PO Box 200, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 4WJ or visit expressbookshop.co.uk.