On this week’s episode of Give Back New Hampshire, we visit Save Your Ass Long Ear Rescue. Founded in 2007, the rescue is dedicated to rescuing, rehabbing and rehoming unwanted or neglected donkeys and mules so none get left behind or go hungry.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Hannah Allen: I am the director and president of the rescue, and I pretty much do a lot of stuff, a little bit of everything. [I] take care of the animals, do the fundraising, social media stuff, help with the vet care, training.
We have two locations right now. We just opened up this one in Marlborough, New Hampshire, so we're working on getting it all set up. And then the organization location in Acworth has been there for I think 17 years now. So we're working on building up this place so that we can take in more animals. We take in about 20 to 40 animals per year and rehome them.
Well, I started out as a horse person and was converted by Anne to horses and donkeys. They're gentle, very stoic nature. It's just I love it. They're very friendly to everyone and anyone. They make excellent therapy animals. It's basically like having little therapists in our backyard, so that's nice. Yeah, they're just very sweet and they're easy to train. They're just very kind animals.
Ann Firestone: I co-founded the rescue in 2007 with a few other like minded, donkey loving women, and I've had Hannah with me for the last ten years, and she's done an amazing job, and just, like, slid right into the role of becoming the next person to run the rescue. There's no one else I could think of to turn it over to. So she's been amazing.
I started it because I realized by reading things online that there was a need for homes for donkeys and mules. At the time, and, well, it's still a lot of them shipped to slaughter for human consumption and for animal food, and it's just a real mess. There's way too many animals in the system, and at the time, I believed I could help by taking animals out of that situation, retraining them, reorienting them and finding them a new home, rehoming them.
Primarily the animals we get now are all owner surrenders, and it's often no fault of the animals, no fault of the humans. It's just life. Situations change. Donkeys live a long time and as we get older, a lot of us can't take care of them the way we once could or things happen in a family. Someone has to go into a nursing home, or people have to move or someone loses their job. And during the pandemic, when people just weren't having their regular income, a lot of people needed to rehome their donkeys. And we found a huge need in helping people rehome their donkeys.
Hannah Allen: So we are really struggling with getting donations to help feed the animals. We need bedding, shavings, pine shavings, hay. We spend about $17,000 a year on hay alone, vet and farrier bills. We always need help with that kind of stuff. Some of the donkeys don't have teeth because they're so old and have had some neglect. So a lot of them eat mashes, which is just soaked grain and Timothy pellets. That gets expensive. Their supplements to it can be pretty pricey.
Laura Kmiec: I am a worker for the rescue and I take care of all the animals feeding, cleaning and I also help with if needed with vet care and farrier. [It's] been a learning curve, but I've been able to manage up in Acworth on my own with the help of Ann every now and then when I need her. But other than that, it's like I love it. I love animals and I love being outdoors, so it's a perfect mix for me.
Hannah Allen: I just really love listening to the animals munching hay. For some reason it's very relaxing and making their mashes and setting everything up, and they're basically like, my kids, I go out and feed them and check on them every few hours during the day.
Ann Firestone: I love that I can still just walk out my door and go out and get a donkey hug. Donkeys are phenomenal huggers. They have huge heavy heads and they put their head, rest their head, their chin right on your shoulder and just like, drop all the weight of the world on your shoulders. And it's so comforting. I just enjoy being with them now since I'm not physically working, I get to pet them and scratch them and love on them and give them treats. So I have the best of both worlds really.
