Gili Island rubbish cart fund
Donation protected
As a veterinarian from Australia, doing volunteer veterinary work on Gili Trawangan Island in Indonesia, I knew there would be some tough times. However seeing the state of the working ponies that cart the rubbish around the island was really quite shocking and upsetting to us all. They were extremely underweight and lethargic, we took some out for a graze on some grass (they are kept in tiny concrete stalls) and some could barely walk from exhaustion. Many also had significant wounds from the harnesses as the drivers had repaired breaks in the leather with nails which then cut into the ponies' sides.
This laceration under the belly was caused by nails that had been used to 'repair' the leather.
One of he offending nails
We are of course working on the short term solutions of more feed, better health care and better equipment to prevent the lacerations from the harnesses, but there is just too much work for these ponies to do. I really feel that we need a long term solution to help these guys.
They cart 22 tonnes of rubbish around the island per day between 9 ponies and this is 7 days/ week in very hot and humid conditions. This amount of work on any animal takes its toll and the ponies don't last very long before they are shipped off to Lombok and sold for meat.
Treating the girth wounds on one of the ponies
They were all very underweight
So what is the plan? We have managed to get approvals on the island for 2 electric motorbike carts which can be used instead, particularly for the heavier waste. This will significantly reduce the workload for these guys and make their life much more bearable. We are working on approvals for more but if we can raise the funds for the first 2 that will at least be a start and will significantly reduce the workload for these poor ponies.
The new carts will be similar to this one. The drivers are really happy to use them and we have the approvals, all we need is the funds!
Please consider helping these ponies with a long term solution. It will mean that not only will these ponies now have a better life but also that hopefully less ponies will be needed in the future so less will be forced into this very hard life.
Thank you so much for your consideration, any amount helps and will be a big weight off their shoulders- literally! :)
This laceration under the belly was caused by nails that had been used to 'repair' the leather.One of he offending nailsWe are of course working on the short term solutions of more feed, better health care and better equipment to prevent the lacerations from the harnesses, but there is just too much work for these ponies to do. I really feel that we need a long term solution to help these guys.
They cart 22 tonnes of rubbish around the island per day between 9 ponies and this is 7 days/ week in very hot and humid conditions. This amount of work on any animal takes its toll and the ponies don't last very long before they are shipped off to Lombok and sold for meat.
Treating the girth wounds on one of the poniesThey were all very underweightSo what is the plan? We have managed to get approvals on the island for 2 electric motorbike carts which can be used instead, particularly for the heavier waste. This will significantly reduce the workload for these guys and make their life much more bearable. We are working on approvals for more but if we can raise the funds for the first 2 that will at least be a start and will significantly reduce the workload for these poor ponies.
The new carts will be similar to this one. The drivers are really happy to use them and we have the approvals, all we need is the funds!Please consider helping these ponies with a long term solution. It will mean that not only will these ponies now have a better life but also that hopefully less ponies will be needed in the future so less will be forced into this very hard life.
Thank you so much for your consideration, any amount helps and will be a big weight off their shoulders- literally! :)
Organizer
Kirsten Weber
Organizer
Bull Creek, WA