The History of the Trust

The Donkey and Mule Protection Trust was set up by the Donkey and Mule Society to create an organisation whose primary focus was the welfare of donkeys and mules—a Trust that could lobby other organisations or government agencies on behalf of donkeys and mules if required, and most importantly, gather donations for its work. Without funding the continued rescue and rehabilitation of donkeys is pretty difficult.  A secondary focus for the Trust was education.

At the start, the Trust had donkeys that it took in and undertook to look after for the rest of their lives. Over time this has changed to the Trust working with the Recognised Rehoming Centres RRCs who do the rescuing and rehoming. The Trust came to realise it did not have the resources to ensure the donkeys it took in were properly cared for and was better able to provide support to these centres in the form of sponsorship of those donkeys unable to be rehomed, or financial support for the rehabilitation of donkeys ready for rehoming.

There are seven trustees appointed by the Donkey and Mule Society, and five appointed by the Trust. It was structured this way to ensure that the Trust always had a majority of trustees who knew about donkeys and mules and was not one day captured by people who were into welfare only but did not really understand about donkeys and mules. This close association between the Society and the Trust is healthy and mutually beneficial. However, they are separate organisations.

Andrea Thomson – founding Chair