A day out at the Donkey Sanctuary

In the summer, some of the Kawaii Animals gang had a lovely day out at the Donkey Sanctuary.  Based near Sidmouth, and with free admission, the Donkey Sanctuary is a lovely, peaceful place.

The Donkey Sanctuary was found in 1969 by Dr Elisabeth Svendsen, MBE and is now an international charity.  They have 5,800 donkeys in their care!  Not all of them are in Sidmouth, of course.

The Sidmouth site is set in the Devon countryside … and so easy to wander around.  Apart from the main area there are other fields and lots of footpaths to explore and every so often you come across a group of donkeys in specific areas.  Some of these areas are set aside for donkeys with special needs.  We loved the area that had been set aside for the older donkeys.  It was fantastic to see these special donkeys being taken care of so well in their twilight years.

All the donkeys at Sidmouth wear collars and these are differently coloured depending on whether they are male or female or have any special needs.  They also have their names on the collars which means that if you form an attachment to a particular donkey you can find out all about them on the individual information boards dotted around.

We particularly loved the ‘hug a donkey’ times.  At certain points during the day donkeys are let out into the courtyard and visitors are encouraged to pet them … gently, of course!

At Kawaii Animals we have a couple of donkey mad friends so we bought them some goodies from the gift shop and it reminded us that we need to add some donkeys to our range so we are currently scouting out some great donkey gifts to add to our collection.

We can heartily recommend a visit to the Donkey Sanctuary.  If you want to visit their site for more information please click here.