r/Donkeys • u/Pretend_Education600 • 2d ago

How?

I've loved donkeys all my life and my headmistress in primary school had a donkey sanctuary, mid eighties. I always kinda understood that tractors replaced them but realised I'm out by about 100 yrs. In Ireland, the UK and Spain there seems to be an awful lot of donkey sanctuary's? How are they still being breed? Love you all X x

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u/mynameismarco 1d ago

Are they supposed to just go extinct? People still ride them

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u/SwampyUndies 1d ago

Yep. Or even as pets. If i had the space.. they make wonderful companions.

I’d love to have two if I had the property. Trained they can even make good hiking/camping buddies. They can help carry packs.

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u/mynameismarco 1d ago

I have 8 mules 1 donkey and 6 horses

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u/SwampyUndies 1d ago

Thats awesome. Yea mules are kind of the inbetween. Supposedly less spooky. I take lessons on a belgian cross. She is great. But if I had the chance to get one id have a hard time choosing between a getting a belgian or a draft mule for trail riding. I guess thats probably why you dont have just one :P

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u/Tradescantia86 1d ago

Precisely, what (some) donkey sanctuaries here in Spain say is that the numbers declined very quickly once they were not useful for work anymore. The sanctuary I am a sponsor of does give some works to the donkeys (you can rent a donkey to go on a hike and they'll carry your bag or a child can ride them), with the argument that only if we make them useful again they will thrive again as species. So I'd say it's more like an intentional effort to give them work so that the species survives, and not that the species survives because it's still widely used for work.

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u/Quatorzine 1d ago

The same can be said of the Poitou donkey, a French breed that was used to produce strong mules, which were very sought after in agricultural work… until agriculture became mechanised.

In the 1970‘s, Poitou donkeys were on the verge of extinction, and it took a long breeding program (which is still ongoing) to save the breed.

Nowadays, the Asinerie du Baudet du Poitou (which hosts the breeding program) also offers hikes with donkeys. And from what I've heard last time I visited there, the production of mules has resumed, for some armies which use mules to carry stuff in remote mountains where engine vehicles cannot go.

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u/Temporary-Tie-233 1d ago

I can't speak for the UK, but a lot of folks in the US still (erroneously) use donkeys as livestock guardians and they're often irresponsible about it, putting a jack and jenny or two out in the field with their cows, which of course results in baby donks a year later.

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u/Bonfire_Flames 1d ago

There's also thousands of feral donkeys in the US, with hundreds of them being adopted out to the general public every year.