If you are the owner of a donkey, miniature or full size, here are tips to help make sure that your donkey is not stolen. Theft of donkeys Is generally a rare occurrence, but one that is on the increase. These same general rules apply to all equines.
Prevent your donkey from being stolen
Theses tips for preventing the theft of your donkey can be applied to all equines.
Is the donkey marked or micro chipped? Just the fact that the donkey has been identified with a microchip or marking can be an effective deterrent, but make sure the information is in a comprehensive register to assist in tracing your donkey if it should be stolen or wander off.
Do you have a written description of your donkey and photographs taken from both sides and full face that can be used for identification purposes? Police often need more than a visual identification from an owner before they can act and photos and a written description will help them determine if a donkey does belong to you.
If your donkey has a passport and any identification documents relevant to micro chipping, freeze branding or historic vaccination certificates, that paperwork will already have a detailed description, but check to make sure that the information is accurate and if not contact the proper organization to have it amended.
- Is your donkey stabled? This is only a safeguard if you take additional precautions. Stabled donkeys are easier to catch and lead away than those from a field. Floodlights linked to a warning system are helpful, but in the interest of your donkey, and the carbon footprint don't leave them on all night.
- Are the gates to your stable yard and paddocks secured by padlocks and heavy duty chains? Remember to reverse the top hinges if they are of the crook type, or alternately have plates welded onto the top of the hinge, to prevent the gate being lifted off.
- If not stabled where you live, do you visit your donkey often and at varying times? As much variation as possible will help to confuse the thief who may be watching your daily routine, but do visit early each day, the majority of animals regardless of type are stolen during the night.
- Are the fences as secure as possible? If not make them difficult to climb over or gain access through; anything that is going to delay the thief acts as a deterrent.
- Have you asked for assistance from people living near paddocks and/or stable who would call the both you and the authorities if they saw anything suspicious in your absence and are they prepared to write down registration numbers of any strange vehicles or note descriptions of any strange people showing unusual interest in your donkeys and where they are kept?
A few precautions can save you hours of frustration and possibly the loss of your equines.
In the worst case scenario when you have a donkey or another equine stolen or lost, know what to do to create the momentum needed to find the lost or stolen animal.
- Telephone the police immediately. They may initially suggest that your donkey has just strayed, but that is an understandable reaction. Many animals reported stolen, turn up later.
- Make local enquiries. Know the dates of sales within 250 miles of you. Many equine thefts take place on a night preceding a sale.
- Ask the police to also notify the police in the area where the sale is taking place as a matter of priority.
- Telephone the auctioneers yourself. You will find most of them co-operative, however, please remember that many stolen equines never enter the sale rings; the thief confidently uses the gathering of dealers and agents at the sale to find a buyer, and the transaction takes place outside the sale yard.
- Go to the sale yourself if possible. You will be able to identify your donkey, but remember to take photographs and identity documents with you as proof.
- Look closely at all donkeys of the same body color, size, age and sex. A bottle of cheap dye can alter markings with ease.
- Be as quick as possible, the freeway network helps remove your donkey seventy miles further from your home in every hour!
- Is your donkey insured? Not all livestock policies include theft, but in many instances it can be added as an extra, at a little cost.
- Make a note of the location of slaughter-houses where donkeys might be accepted and destroyed for human consumption, it is an uncomfortable thought but a necessary one.
This information is furnished by The Donkey Breed Society.