The villager's least respected friend, as Salonaz Sami discovers at the Brooke Veterinary Hospital and the SPARE Animal Shelter, has always had devoted friends of its own "Hey, donkey," sang Saad El-Soghayar -- urban folk singer- turned movie star, "I love you . " And the movie viewers were shocked to see the most open expressions of such a feeling on screen: the singer saluting the donkey, caressing and even kissing it while, in the course of the song itself, he enumerated its virtues and condemned the abuse to which it is routinely subjected. Perhaps this was a box-office trick, perhaps El-Soghayar had genuine feelings for the donkey. In either case it struck a truthful chord. For his part Hassan Sami, army brigadier-turned Brooke Veterinary Hospital general manager and now consultant, has no end of sympathy for "those amazing four-legged creatures". He says, "they are worse than mistreated here, though in other countries they're actually domesticated as pets." Brooke is one of only two medical centres in Egypt that offer medical care for the equines, specialising in them; it also has an outdoor clinic for treating smaller animals. Founded in 1934 by Dorothy Brooke, the wife of a British major general, sympathetic to "the working horses, donkeys and mules of Cairo", the hospital was registered as a charity in 1957. It is funded by donations and its services are offered free of charge. Sami, a hospital attendant who has worked there for 24 years, says no donkey is ever refused admission; and on being admitted, each donkey receives "loving and caring treatment by our expert staff". Eliminating the suffering of equines, which tend to be of vital importance to their owners, is the principal aim of the hospital, and a noble aim it is, in more than one sense: "By helping a donkey, we help a whole family -- to whom the donkey is effectively the breadwinner. On rare occasions," Sami adds, "the better - off owners offer small donations -- but this never results in preferential treatment for their animals." Yet the owners are by and large poor and uneducated -- themselves mistreated, and well aware that, if not for the donkey, there would be no food on the table. If they treat their animals with cruelty, it is because such an attitude is automatically passed from one generation to the next. Sometimes, indeed, by the time it arrives at the hospital in such condition the only humane answer is for it to be put down -- notwithstanding its importance for the family income; as veterinary Hatem Hussein explains, this is what the hospital advises, after keeping an animal for long enough to realise there is no hope of a cure. Hussein has worked at Brooke for 17 years, and he says that only five per cent of the cases dealt with are the result of disease: "most suffer from severe exhaustion and dehydration, among other things -- especially those working in the brick kilns because they carry an overload of hot bricks every day." All animals receive a complete check-up, vaccinations and the proper fit of horseshoe: "you can't imagine the terrible wounds caused by ill-fitting shoes." In some cases, irreparable damage will have been caused by an accidental spillage of flammable liquids transported by animal-drawn carts. "Such cases are isolated." The hospital has two wards and an open-air yard, enough for 22 and 90 animals, respectively. The yard is where the animals rest, play and socialise, according to Sami: animals are kept in separate compartments, with straw protecting them from the tiled floor and troughs of food and water. Some donkeys require extended periods of hospitalisation: "in such cases, we compensate the owner with a small subsistence allowance, out of our donations, since their donkeys are their livelihood." With such gestures a sense of trust is built: "it's the small things that matter -- showing them that we care." While some animal rights activists argue that horse-, mule- and donkey-pulled carts should be banned for the animals' sake, Sami argues that this is hardly a solution in practise: "these are poor people who cannot be denied a vital source of income but should be informed about how to take better care of their animals." He mentions examples of "shocking treatment": the beating stick replacing the accelerator in a car; "local cures" like soda water poured into the nostrils to treat a stomach ache. Khamis Bakkar, a 41-year-old peasant, for one, believes in the efficacy of such "cures". The hospital has 39 qualified vets and some 180 assistants working in seven centres in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, Edfu, Mansoura and the coastal city of Marsa Matruh -- helping hundreds of donkeys. "We choose our staff very carefully," Sami says. "Each has to have the heart of an angel to be able to relate to an animal's misfortune." Brooke also undertakes educational campaigns, sometimes with the help of audio-visual aids, in the course of "treatment tours" around a number of sites. These pay off in the long run, Sami says: "more owners are now concerned about their donkeys' health and make a habit of visiting." Sadly, he goes on, many have yet to understand that the animals have emotions; donkeys who have been beaten every day for their entire lives arrive at the hospital with an aversion to being touched, but by the time they leave they will have learned to break free of their carts and come back to the hospital in search of the kindness they never experienced with their owners. Amina Abaza, founder of the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights (SPARE) agrees that kindness is of the essence. For her part she used to roam the streets of Cairo in search of unfortunate strays to take into her husband's farm, her own shelter in Shabramant or some other loving home. When an owner refused to take their animal to Brooke, she offered to buy it -- even at double its price. More recently, thanks to grants from Jane Courtney and Margaret Gebhard, Abaza has been able to expand the space of her shelter and supply it with the equipment necessary to provide medical as well as emotional attention -- a full-time mobile equine clinic and a dedicated vet that will enable SPARE to expand the scope of its activities to areas beyond Shabramant. Since Abaza put up a sign saying, "We treat donkeys for free", SPARE has received a fair number of visitors; SPARE cannot yet house all that many animals, but Abaza's farm in a quiet, agricultural part of Saqqara is home to dozens of donkeys and other animals. "I cannot turn a blind eye to any animal in need of refuge," Abaza insists. Child awareness is top priority for both Brooke and SPARE. Sami recalls an occasion on which, watching a donkey have an injection, a child on a "field trip" to raise awareness cried, "he's in pain -- they feel too." Sami says this is precisely the message that needs to be communicated -- a message that finds support in both Islam and Christianity. All of which is not to broach what was shocking about El-Soghayar's song: Donkeys have always been described as stubborn and stupid animals, yet according to Abaza, they have more of a self- preserving instinct than horses, who are "far more willing to go along a path without being sure of their footing, for example". It is difficult to frighten or otherwise force a donkey to risk its life. As an insult homar (donkey) is a reference to stupidity and ignorance, but Abaza argues that it is a sign of failing human intelligence. Donkeys are not only friendly and dependable but also bright. Bakkar, a peasant, agrees: "they are very clever. I leave my six- and eight-year-old daughters in the field until after dark, trusting my donkey of bringing them home safely." Donkeys are believed to be capable of memorising any path they tread, even if they have been on it only once -- and they need less food than horses. But the fact remains that hundreds of overworked donkeys die every day, their only possibility of release from exhaustion and maltreatment -- according to Abaza -- being a government decision to save them. Together with Sami and other activists, Abaza has presented the Ministry of Agriculture with the draft of an animal rights law providing for the protection of animals, calling for, among other things, the establishment of an Egyptian Council for the Protection of Animals. The right to a healthy, safe life free of injury and suffering is coupled with provisions for the humans' economic needs. Once approved by the ministry, the law can be submitted to the People's Assembly. In the meantime, activists remain lone voices. Abaza says, "when people tell me, 'if you have the time and money to help animals, channel it towards human beings,' I often reply that unlike humans, those poor creatures cannot express themselves." As for Sami, he believes that, "God created animals to worship Him and service us. But God also made it clear that they are helpless and need our kindness. This is exactly what we try to give them." Brooke's ambulance hotline: 02 3649 312 Abaza is always available on 012 3162 912
