You can imagine my horror. The place that we rescued Patrick from had three new donkeys yesterday morning. Yes, three.
They are small and from what I can tell are young. They still have a spring in their step and don’t yet wear the shackle of a halter that Patrick endured for almost three years.
Two are white and one is grey. They’re beautiful.
We have to stop this. Many of you offered to help, and here’s your opportunity. I have drafted the following letter and would appreciate your comments.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Date 2011
The Honorable Art De La Cruz
Bernalillo County District 2 Commissioner
One Civic Plaza, NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
Dear Commissioner De La Cruz,
We are writing to express our concern about the practice of using donkeys as a training tool for roping horses. We live in your district and this issue is very important to us. Donkeys are extremely intelligent and sentient animals and are not made to handle being roped – either physically or emotionally.
Roping is necessary for ranching cattle, and team roping as a sport hones the skills needed to treat cattle on the range. However, that doesn’t excuse using donkeys to improve roping skills. There are many mechanical roping dummies that can be used, and can be cheaply built with a little ingenuity.
The wording of the law as we understand it today falls under the following New Mexico statute:
§ 30-18-11. Unlawful tripping of an equine; exception
A. Unlawful tripping of an equine consists of intentionally using a wire, pole, stick, rope or any other object to cause an equine to lose its balance or fall, for the purpose of sport or entertainment.
B. The provisions of Subsection A of this section do not apply to laying an equine down for medical or identification purposes.
C. As used in this section, “equine” means a horse, pony, mule, donkey or hinny.
D. Whoever commits unlawful tripping of an equine is guilty of a misdemeanor.
E. Whoever commits unlawful tripping of an equine that causes the maiming, crippling or death of the equine is guilty of a fourth degree felony.
L. 1995, Ch. 113, § 1, eff. July 1, 1995.
Donkeys are being used as a training tool for sport roping just down the road from us. When we contacted the New Mexico Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Taskforce about this, we were told that, “…the roping issue won’t cut it with law enforcement.”
We urge you to please enforce the law against this illegal and inhumane practice and are seeking your help in how to make sure this happens. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
If you prefer, you can also download the letter here: Letter_to_Art_de_la_Cruz.
To send your own version of the letter, please see Clair’s comment here.
Thank you all for being such wonderful blogging friends. ♥
Morning Bray Farm 