First, chicken rescue. Now, donkey rescue 911.

I'm unmoved. The highest and best use of a donkey is labor, to serve humans, who are his natural overseers and superiors. A smart donkey owner will treat his donkey well, as the investment yields maximum returns. If a donkey needs to go into the shop for repairs, all well and good. If a donkey is no longer fit for work, it seems perfectly reasonable to kill it. After all, it is only a donkey. However, of all the things she could have chosen to do with her life, an ex-British airways flight attendant named Lucy Fensom has chosen to establish a donkey santuary on four acres, where 110 formerly mistreated Palestinian donkeys now reside. She also has conducted donkey health clinics for donkey owners, including one in the Palestinian community of Azun, on the West Bank. That seems useful, but even there:

The economic reality she's bucking is evident in Zuhir Marabi's situation. An unemployed local, he's gladly brought his donkey for vet service, noting: "The money I can make back from working a donkey - pulling a cart, digging the land - compared to how much I would spend at a vet doesn't justify the investment. I don't feed the donkey regularly ... only when I'm working, because I can't afford it. I have six children to feed."

Ultimately, as we see, donkeys are economic units, not unlike a work vehicle which you fill with fuel, and continue to house only if there is some return on the investment. Fensom seems like a good-hearted person, and says compassion for donkeys will breed compassion among men. I'm sure we all wish that humanity toward donkeys would help compel Palestinian and other Muslim men to cease treating their women like donkeys, or worse. And that compassion for Palestinian donkeys would stem the detonation of Israelis in buses and restaurants by Palestinian terrorists; and even slightly impinge upon the detonation of tourists, and assassinations of innocent Christians by jihadists, around the globe. But it won't; and compassion for donkeys costs money better spent by donors to engender greater economic opportunity and the development of civil institutions in locales where jihadists express themselves by killing others with whom they have ideological or political differences.

Further, the plight of donkeys in 2006 must be considered in light of global economic competition. Regions where donkeys still have currency tend to be in severe need of better schools, infrastructure, jobs, and in a word - modernity. Animals are indeed subsistence for many rural families in the developing world, and our household happily donates to the Heifer Project each year, to just that end. But even there, the emphasis is on the economic output of the animals.

I will go out on a limb, and just say it: making a comfortable home for broken-down donkeys should necessarily rank quite low on any list of societal objectives. Compassion too indiscriminately granted becomes compassion rendered meaningless. I draw the line at donkeys. And chickens. They are here to serve us; no more, no less.

TECHNORATI TAGS: DONKEYS, SANCTUARY, ECONOMICS, ANIMAL RIGHTS, TERRORISM, COMPASSION

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 8, 2006 03:56 PM