ABOUT US

An angry vegetable garden owner whose vegetables were being eaten by his neighbour’s donkey led to the establishment of EARS in 2010.

Furious at the destruction of his vegetables, the gardener lashed out at donkey Genevieve with an iron bar which paralysed her face on one side, and partially blinded her in one eye. Her owner asked farm owner and horse lover Jo Sedgwick to help Genevieve and brought her, with her young son Satchmo, to the Sedgwick farm 10km outside of Greyton.

It took several weeks for Genevieve to heal. Satchmo went back to his owner but a year later was surrendered to us and joined his mother. The two are inseparable. And that was our beginning.

In the intervening years, EARS has grown to include not only donkey rescue and retirement, but the education of children and equine owners. We welcome school groups.

We have 15 permanent donkey residents at the Sanctuary. Many arrived with serious health issues including starvation and injuries, requiring months of rehabilitation. With gentle, patient care these sweet souls have regained not only their physical health but their mental health too and with patient reintroduction to humans, they’ve learned to trust again. We also have two permanent pony residents, Jelly Tot a cheeky Shetland pony and Billie Busstop, an abused pony rescued from at a bus stop in a nearby village.