Donkey milk in India - Little Smokey gets rescued!

When Smokey was born a net was tied around his face to ensure that he does not drink his mothers milk which is a precious business commodity in the city. Then he was abandoned and left severely ill. Support animal rescue in India! www.helpanimalsindia.orgdonate More info on Smokeys rescue and the tragedy of donkey milk BENGALURU: Donkey milk is priced as a cure for a range of ailments from syphilis to insomnia and as miracle beauty potion. Female donkeys or jennys are therefore well kept and fussed over but male donkeys or jacks are not so lucky. They are often mistreated and abandoned and male foals are kept away from their mothers and their milk. One such case is that of Smokey a six-month old jack rescued by the members of Compassion Unlimited Plus Action CUPA team last month. Smokey despite being six months old is stunted and feeble. The staff at the rehabilitation centre at Kengeri say that Smokey is malnourished and while a healthy jack would be 3.5-feet tall he stands at 2.5-feet. Smokey belonged to a woman who the rescuers do not want to name in Adugodi who makes a business from selling donkey milk. He was born to the donkey that was domesticated mainly for milk and she was bought from Sira Taluk. When Smokey was born he was abandoned and a net was tied around his face to ensure that he does not drink his mothers milk which is a precious business commodity in the city. Hype of donkey milk The donkey milk in the market is sold anywhere between 30 to 80 for 10 ml. There are instances of people travelling from Kolar and Hosur region to Bengaluru selling donkey milk. It is expensive because unlike other milching animal donkey produces about 100 ml of milk per day. Besides its perceived medicinal value donkey milk is also popular as a substitute for breast milk. However nutritionists and dieticians do not recommend the milk be fed to infants. Dr Karthika Selvi chief dietician at BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals is also a mother She says that her neighbours in Kengeri persuaded her many times to buy donkey milk. It has not been proven yet that donkey milk cures any ailment in fact the way it is sold it is often a breeding ground for infections she says. Brunt of being a male Since Smokey was severely deprived of his mothers milk he suffered a rectal prolapse that had to be corrected with a operation at the rescue centre. The prolapse happens so because of malnourishment dehydration and ultimately constipation. When a dehydrated animal tries to excrete the pressure often pushes the rectum out of the anus says Aditya Badami a CUPA member who has seen many cases of this in donkeys. However this is the first case we have seen get this bad. Another abandoned male donkey at the centre is Pink Floyd the jack was named after the rock band because of the pink cut mark on his back. Pink Floyd was found in one of the gutters of Shivajinagar. He used to serve the dhobighat area around Vasanth Nagar. As he became old and unable to carry the required weight he was abandoned. Beasts of Burden Just because they are considered as beasts of burden they should not be exploited says Shilpa Mahbubani who quit her corporate job to be a full time volunteer of CUPA. Jennifer a rather old jenny was found abandoned in Shivajinagar. The jenny was pregnant but was still made to work. Donkeys are not only hard working but they are also very resilient they rarely show any sign of pain. That is why they get exploited Shilpa says. 2017 HelpAnimalsIndia.org. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated all materials on these pages are copyrighted by HelpAnimalsIndia.org. No part of these pages either text or image may be used for any purpose other than personal use. Therefore reproduction modification storage in a retrieval system or retransmission in any form or by any means electronic mechanical or otherwise for reasons other than personal use is strictly prohibited without prior written permission. The identifier Help Animals India refers to HelpAnimalsIndia.org. General inquiries should be directed to our Web feedback box infoHelpAnimalsIndia.org or on our site ,

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