Hello!
Today was even more action packed than the others. A word of advice: when travelling in India, expect the unexpected. We left Delhi for a four hour car journey to Agra. On the way we stopped off at a restaurant where an elephant is owned by a holy man. Wildlife SOS are planning to take the elephant off its owner as it is chained up all hours of the day however they have to wait until they have raised enough funds to establish a sanctuary.
Elephants have a majestic quality which is likeable to whales and tigers. Her sheer beauty was enough to give us all chills down our spine. During breakfast Andrew ordered a glass of orange juice, unknowingly it was mixed with unfiltered indian water… more on that later.
After the restaurant we met with the Friendicoes Equine Team and followed them through rural towns as they assisted working donkeys and horses. Along the highway, gypsies have replaced their dancing bears with monkeys they have trained to perform tricks for money. It was an awful site to see monkeys performing back flips and walking around in circles on their hind legs for the amusement of foreigners.
We stopped at the first equine stand in Utter Pradesh, the state next to Delhi. The people were not used to foreigners and video cameras as it was a very small, agricultural town. As we assisted the equine vets with their work, a large crowd soon gathered around us and asked us for photographs! Some of the horses were very skinny and had branding all over their hind legs. It seemed the life had been zapped out of them from working such long and exhausting hours. Thank God for the equine vets who are able to visit these towns once a week to check on these beautiful and helpless creatures. After we had finished up, Andrew became really unwell and his vomiting began. This spectacle also gathered a large crowd. Soon Andrew was vomiting to an audience of around thirty people!
The next stop was in a state called Rahjastan where the equine vets check up on the horses and donkeys once a week. As I said earlier, expect the unexpected in India. Along the way we noticed a donkey lying on the side of the road. We all jumped out of the car and ran over to find one of the most heartbreaking sites we had ever seen. The donkey was lying flat on the road with mud and dirt all over the poor little thing. His life was slowly disappearing from his eyes. The equine vets transported him about 50 metres up from the road to a quiet area where they could assess the situation. They found broken legs and a donkey on the verge of death. As this too was a small town, around forty people gathered around the donkey and the equine team to see what was going on. The vets assessed the donkey and made the rational decision to euthanize him. I stroked the donkeys face as he embraced his last minutes of life. I was sure that this was probably the only kindness he had ever received.
The most heartbreaking aspect we later found out. Our friend and guide Tandrali informed us that the locals had told her they had seen the donkey lying there for two days already. He had fallen down the drain and some of the local people pulled him out and laid him on the road.
After the donkey was put out of his misery, we finally made it to Agra and visited the Wildlife SOS bear sanctuary. In case you are unaware, Wildlife SOS successfully shut down the centuries-long dancing bear trade through the whole of India. Now they care for the surrended ex dancing-bears in both the Agra and Bangalore sanctuaries. There were around 70 sloth bears in the sanctuary. Each living a peaceful and compassionate life that they so deserved.
- Elizabeth
