Last week we were in Syria – we’ve had a SPANA project there for fifteen years now. Slightly strange place, difficult, tough government, yet the people are some of the nicest in the Middle East. They are, because of the politics, very cut off from the west, so when Diana (our Education Director) gives a Teacher Training Course (we have just produced the standard curriculum text-book on animal welfare and the environment), everyone is aching to hear and try out the latest methods.…

We have been trying for several years to provide fresh, clean drinking water for the working animals of Marrakech. ‘Not very difficult, that,’ you might say, ‘Build a couple of good, old-fashioned water-troughs’.

Ah, but you haven’t reckoned with the bureaucracy of the Moroccan authorities, nor the cunning of its citizens.



After several months of petitioning, we did indeed finally get permission to build a couple of troughs around the city. ‘Water is expensive’, they said.…

SPANA (Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) is one of the world’s oldest international veterinary charities, providing practical care for around 380,000 working animals a year in 8 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Millions of people around the world still get their income from a working animal, be it a donkey, mule, horse or camel. For thousands of years they have been the only truck and taxi that millions of…