EMERGENCY INTERVENTION
In a crisis … WILL WE BE READY?
A freak accident — a mule stabbed, and close to death — but compassion, generosity, and great love for animals … our supporters helped saved him.
And maybe even saved his owner’s life.
It was a remote corner of Morocco. A man I’ll call Amal, living in poverty, had only one mule to help him keep himself and his family alive. But the mule got too close to a nervous cow, as the cow was being milked, and she suddenly gored him. The damage was horrific.
Amal and his mother raced to wrap the animal in a blanket — the only way they could keep his insides in — and load him on a lorry. Then they began a panicky 31-mile journey, here to the Fondouk … hoping and praying for a miracle.
Our medical team was in place to rush this devastated animal into surgery.
Amal didn’t know how he and his family could survive without their only mule. Yet the mule was as close to death as an animal could come. To be honest, I looked at the mule and said to myself: “If he survives, it will be quite a miracle.”
But our medical team rushed the patient into surgery — still wrapped in a blanket — carefully removing the blanket, and fearing the worst. We were relieved to find nearly 10 feet of the mule’s intestine still clean and undamaged.
Eight professionals worked for two anxious hours to get the animal literally put back together. Finally, we sewed him up and moved him into recovery, hoping for the best. We kept him on fluids and IV antibiotics to fight any possible infection. And incredibly, just 12 hours after surgery, that mule stood up — snorted irritably — and reared at the vet!
I can hardly describe Amal’s joy and gratitude. His mule will live — and his family’s future is secured.
I felt some of his joy and gratitude too … knowing our supporter’s gratitude saved the day.
Another animal will come to us in trouble, and we will be ready. Meanwhile, we’re working to keep multitudes of other working animals healthy and strong, and helping their owners to do everything possible to provide effective basic care for their animals.
We provide emergency intervention — as well as lifetime care — for working horses, donkeys, and mules … animals on whom families’ lives depend.
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