Meeting in Leoben – Battered donkeys connect people’s hearts

“Emmerich” had a terrible life. The donkey was given to a Styrian who did not want the gray animal and could not house him in a species-appropriate way. So the poor man vegetated for fifteen years in a garage of ten square meters. Without sun, on concrete especially very bad for the social creature, without fellow animal. Finally, the “Donkey Rescue Leoben” was able to give him a new life; Since then he has been standing in the pasture with his friends and is simply happy.

From the slaughterhouse to paradise
Like ‘Lancelot’. When he was only six months old, his owners gave him to the butcher without any empathy and wanted to collect the price of the meat in return. But the healthy, alert animal moved the meat chopper, he informed Uli Kettner, who saved him. And “Lancelot” has developed excellently and is visibly happy.

Uli Kettner is actually a ‘saint’ of animals, something like the patron saint of donkeys. He currently has 207 specimens in his pastures, most of which were previously kept in poor conditions or were orphaned after death.
The pensioner covered 104,000 kilometres last year alone, collecting a poor animal on average every other day. Cherished when it was half-starved, nursed back to health, mended its hooves, which are sometimes so long and deformed that the running animal can barely walk.

Dedication takes a lot of time and money
This costs the pensioner, who has already won the highest animal welfare awards (including those of the state and “Krone”), 75,000 euros per year because his initiative hardly exists. But Uli (and his great team!) not only takes care of the donkeys, he also takes them to the alpine pastures in the summer, takes care of the meadows, manures, has so much to do that a day would last three times as many hours. What connects people is also important to him.

And so the first official meeting took place on Monday. Right on the meadow, among the good-natured long-eared birds, in a cheerful summer atmosphere. Children of all ages were invited, as well as adult customers of Jugend am Werk.

A victory for adults too
“I am Bine”, greeted us with a 48-year-old woman who is particularly enthusiastic about knitting and crocheting at Jugend am Werk. And she has also loved donkeys since she was a child, because her great-grandmother had them. “The spotted one there is my favorite”, she describes enthusiastically. “All animals” are fond of Gerti, who also excels in maintenance at Jugend am Werk and also keeps cemeteries in good condition.

It doesn’t take long for all the guests to get closer to each other, over the four-legged friends, while grooming, cleaning and scratching. “It can’t be helped”, says Uli Kettner, who also enjoys this day and would like to expand such gatherings even further.

No wonder when praise comes from all sides: “We think it’s great what is achieved here at the ‘donkey rescue’. And that the children can experience the animals up close and learn something about them and their needs,” says the mother of Johanna, Leopold and little Elisabeth. The eyes of her little ones already sparkle when they see the donkey from afar.

What a wonderful day for the big ones, the little ones, the big ears and Ulrich Kettner.

What Uli Kettner has achieved, what he and his team achieve every day, is actually superhuman. The costs for this are barely manageable at 75,000 euros per year. If you want to help, because this is really excellent animal protection: IBAN: AT14 2081 5000 4169 9117, Info: eselrettung.at