Source:  News Release/Emma Gill

Stabbed donkey in Romania on the road to recovery

Misu, a four year old working donkey from Cernavoda, in South East Romania, suffered horrific injuries after being stabbed twice in the neck. Thanks to free, emergency treatment by international animal welfare charity, The Donkey Sanctuary, he is now on the road to recovery.


Andrew Judge, The Donkey Sanctuary’s European Operations Manager, was with the team who provided life-saving veterinary care to the donkey who had been caught up in a dispute between two farmers:

“When we arrived Misu was in a very bad condition. The hair on his neck was missing and red raw, and I could see the two stab wounds – one behind each ear - which were weeping a large amount of puss. When we started clipping the hair from the donkey’s neck to get to the wounds, it became clear that the situation was much worse than anticipated; there were more maggots than hair. With the help of Misu’s owner, we managed to calm the animal, and continued to clip the hair, wash and treat the wounds and remove the last of the maggots. After an hour of treatment and antibiotic injections we had finished and the donkey looked much more comfortable.

“Helping working donkeys like Misu also helps the communities which rely on them to help meet their basic needs and provide a source of income. Like many donkey owners in this part of Romania, Misu’s owner told us that he would not have been able to afford to treat his donkey himself, and so Misu almost certainly would have died. Without his working donkey, Misu’s owner would have been without an animal to pull his cart, and so his livelihood would also have suffered.”

The Donkey Sanctuary has been working in partnership with the charity Save The Dogs and Other Animals in Romania since 2007. The two charities provide outreach veterinary care for donkeys and mules working in the community, and a refuge for up to 80 rescued donkeys with medical conditions.

Donkeys are still used as working animals in many of the poorer, agricultural areas of the country, and donkeys without access to veterinary care often become ill or injured, and in some cases are sold for meat when they are no longer able to work.

To find out more about the work of The Donkey Sanctuary overseas, please visit www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/overseas.