A new era in the medical treatment and emotional care of unwanted donkeys has arrived with the opening of The Center for the Advancement of Donkeys in Grayson County, Texas. The nation’s first specialized medical facility dedicated to donkeys is a groundbreaking venture of Oscar’s Place, a donkey adoption center and sanctuary that has saved close to 500 donkeys destined for slaughter over the last five years.
Oscar’s Place was co-founded by former Time Inc. media executive, Ron King, and Phil Selway, owner of Los Angeles-based Hamilton-Selway Fine Art. Oscar’s Place and CEO Ron King are featured in a 17-episode docuseries, Donkey King, which airs on ABC stations across the nation.
Although donkeys are incredibly intelligent, sensitive, and emotional animals that form lifelong bonds with each other, they are nonetheless victims of a global crisis driven by the demand for the collagen in their hides. Annually, millions of donkeys around the world are slaughtered. Many of them, including pregnant females, are sold at auction to kill pen buyers, who purchase them en masse to harvest their hides.
The new hospital, which opened on September 5, fulfills an essential missing step in Oscar’s Place’s rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming process: it enables early medical assessment and treatment in close proximity to one of the largest kill pen auctions in the U.S. “In nearly all cases, we don’t know the health status of the donkeys we are saving,” said Oscar’s Place co-founder and CEO Ron King. “We may unknowingly save a donkey that is seriously ill, only to put it on trailer for a several-day transport alongside healthy animals, putting in jeopardy the health of all the animals.”
With the opening of Collinsville facility, the on-site veterinary staff now administer life-saving treatment in a matter of minutes, rather than days. The state-of-the-art hospital includes a covered intake and assessment arena; temperature-controlled, bio-secure stalls; separate recovery housing for donkeys with strangles, asinine herpes, flu, and other contagious conditions; an on-site lab and pharmacy; an isolation ward for critical-care donkeys; and 40 acres of pastures with shelters, ponds and room to heal.
On Sunday, September 6, Oscar’s Place welcomed its first 14 patients, including moms and babies and seniors, having saved them at auction that day.
“This Center is the first of its kind and is built specifically to receive donkeys immediately, diagnose them accurately, and begin their recovery quickly,” said King. Once they are healthy, the donkeys will be transported to the organization’s adoption center and sanctuary in Northern California.
According to King, there is a much bigger vision for its North Texas operations: educating others about best practices in the treatment and care of donkeys. “We want the new facility to be more than a hospital; we want it to be the epicenter for collecting data, training veterinarians, and advancing the science of donkey medicine,” said King.
The Center will offer internships, externships and residency programs to veterinary students and graduates – and even practicing veterinarians – who will be able to live onsite in a university village. Oscar’s Place currently has educational partnerships with UC Davis and Oregon State University; King hopes to expand that to include Texas-based veterinary schools.
“We will continue our laser focus on rescuing and rehabilitating donkeys in need, but we are committed to investing in training the next generation of veterinarians,” said King. He and his team want to help veterinary professionals better understand and fall in love with donkeys, as they do. “When we transform how donkeys are viewed and treated, we will improve the welfare of donkeys for decades to come,” he added.
The Center will also significantly increase the organization’s footprint and capacity, allowing Oscar’s Place to house and care for up to 500 donkeys at a time. Currently, there are nearly 160 donkeys at the adoption center in Hopland, with an additional 70 donkeys at the sanctuary in Potter Valley.
Volunteers will continue to be essential to the organization’s work as it expands its operations to Texas. Nearly 70 people – from young adults to senior citizens – volunteer each week at the Hopland facility, providing for the daily care and emotional rehabilitation of the donkeys. They work alongside a team of nearly 20 full-time staff, including on-site veterinarian and Head of Animals Dr. Kate Schoenhals, who leads the donkeys’ medical care and rehabilitation.
Source: Press Release
