 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
As an animal lover maybe this island wasn't the best place to come. On my first day I took a run along a path I had found online and looked a good regular running route for my 10 days.
After a couple of miles I came across 5 donkeys in a small area with ramshackle fencing around them. 4 where tethered. I climbed through the broken fence and 2 of them have so water so I filled their water butt's and have checked on them each day since (day 7 today) they have had water each day since but 4 remain chained. 1 younger one can get through the fence and has met us twice on the path as we have brought them pieces of fruit each day. 2 of them look in poor condition and one is chained without shade.
I have taken photographs and following the online advice from "animal action" I will be reporting the owner to the police. It breaks my heart every day and I cant just ignore their plight and come home.
Does anyone have any experience of this process?
Sent from Outlook for Android
Whatever you do don't go to Lindos - it's like the slave trade never got banned.
Good luck on your quest, kudos for doing something active.
dont have any experience of the process, but have sadly seen similar on my travels throughout the greek islands. the greeks are lovely, friendly people, but i just dont think they care for animals the way we do over here. so i dont think its the case that rhodes was the wrong island for you, im sure there are similar cases on any island, its just that your run found you one.
youll usually find each island has their own dog/cat/donkey sanctuary (and usually started by foreigners), and we meet many people who visit these sanctuaries as part of their holiday. not sure i could do that, itd be too sad, so fair play to them all. one of our neighbours went through the process of bringing a dog home from corfu that had been badly treated and are currently trying to train it. its sh1t scared of blokes (i wonder why) but theyve made a difference to one dogs life and i commend them for it.
good on you for doing something about it, i wouldnt have known where to start really. id be interested on how you get on, itd be great if you actually made a difference for the poor old donks. cynical old me would guess the local police would placate you whilst youre there, but nothing would actually be done about it. hope im wrong but please keep this thread updated.
good work that man.
EDIT: as eulach says ^^^ the poor old donks are expected to carry fat lazy tourists up the hill at lindos so maybe one place to avoid. or just go and pay for a donkey trip and dont use it, give the poor beast a bit of respite (and a carrot)?
Wait until you get back and find out how the British treat animals before they eat them
Thanks all. Ran out this am and again filled 2 water butt's for ones chained up. Me and Mrs surfer must look odd running along the road carrying 8 pieces of fruit. After feeding and watering I called the police who to their credit sent out a car and the young office appeared genuinely concerned. Gave me his email address and details to make a report which he said we could do via email and it was not necessary to visit the station. Helpful as we have no transport. He also said he would bring a vet to treat them. I have 7 days of time stamped photos showing importantly that they have been tethered all of this time.
I don't know their fate but anything has to be better than being tethered and starved indefinitely in 30c+ I hope they end up in a sanctuary somewhere.