Working donkeys mistreated in Palestine on building sites
Owner Ahmed Hasoon forces him up and down the precarious building, issuing shouts and the occasional prod and thwack with a hefty stick
The donkey pauses to shift the three 40lb marble slabs uncomfortably strapped to its back as it grinds its hooves into the gravel and heaves up the remaining stairs.
Zake is climbing up an 11-storey housing block and spends hours each day ferrying sand, cement, marble and heavy tools up and down the debris-strewn stairwells.
In any working day, the 13-year-old animal can move a tonne of materials, alongside fellow donkey, ten-year-old Aladghm.
Their owner Ahmed Hasoon forces them up and down the precarious building, issuing shouts and the occasional prod and thwack with a hefty stick.
These are the builder donkeys of Nablus; labourers of a building boom in the West Bank of Palestine, whose welfare is being monitored by a British charity.
Their daily drudgery, amid a frenetic building site full of dust and sparks from angle-grinders, is a world away from the gentle Nativity imagery of donkeys on Christmas cards that will start to drop through the letter boxes of millions of homes this week.
'It is harrowing to witness. They haul back-breaking loads hour after hour, day after day,' says Tim Wass MBE, chief executive of the Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land sanctuary, which rescues animals across Israel and Palestine.
'Some of these donkeys endure barbaric treatment and it is horrible to think of what Christmases they will have working long shifts without proper food, water or care.
'They are prisoners of work, becoming emaciated, ill and then discarded at the side of the road.'
Zake the donkey spends hours each day ferrying sand, cement, marble and heavy tools up and down the debris-strewn stairwell of an 11-storey housing block
In any working day, the 13-year-old animal can move a tonne of materials, alongside fellow donkey, ten-year-old Aladghm.
These are the builder donkeys of Nablus; labourers of a building boom in the West Bank of Palestine, whose welfare is being monitored by a British charity.
Their owner Ahmed Hasoon forces them up and down the precarious building, issuing shouts and the occasional prod and thwack with a hefty stick
Harriet Dodd, programme director of the Brooke charity, which campaigns for the welfare of 100 million working donkeys, horses and mules worldwide, says: 'Sadly, a large number of these animals are suffering from injuries, dehydration and malnutrition caused by the extreme environments they work in.
'Their owners are often poor, and don't have the skills or resources to properly care for their animals.'
The RSPCA is backing the Safe Haven's work and spokesman David Bowles adds: 'It is important to educate the owners that it is in their own and the donkeys' interest to care for them and ensure they are in good condition.
'Using donkeys for work is a tradition in some countries but those that are well cared for will actually work better.'
But the Safe Haven charity, which organises free veterinary and farrier treatment for the builder donkeys and takes in abandoned or wounded donkeys at its base, is facing a funding crisis that threatens its mercy mission.
'We are saving donkeys every day but funds are running out and right now we cannot go on beyond December 22 - we won't even make Christmas Eve,' says Mr Wass, former chief officer of the RSPCA, appointed to rescue the Sussex-based charity, whose Royal patron is Princess Alexandra.
'We can make such a difference to suffering animals but we need the British public to back us so we can carry on with the work.'
Their daily drudgery, amid a frenetic building site full of dust and sparks from angle-grinders, is a world away from the gentle Nativity imagery of donkeys on Christmas cards that will start to drop through the letter boxes of millions of homes this week
'It is harrowing to witness. They haul back-breaking loads hour after hour, day after day,' says Tim Wass MBE, chief executive of the Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land sanctuary, which rescues animals across Israel and Palestine
Mr Wass said 'Some of these donkeys endure barbaric treatment and it is horrible to think of what Christmases they will have working long shifts without proper food, water or care'
The RSPCA is backing the Safe Haven's work and spokesman David Bowles adds: 'It is important to educate the owners that it is in their own and the donkeys' interest to care for them and ensure they are in good condition
The pitiful procession continues throughout the day with the donkeys picking their way through power cables, rubble and past the open lift shaft to deliver their loads.
Their hooves regularly slip on the polished marble and then it is on to the gravel-strewn makeshift stairs laden with builder bags draped over their backs as they deliver higher up into the block in the Rafidia district.
Zake – the name means clever – munches on cardboard during a brief break at the foot of the building as his owners struggle to lift buckets of cement to fill the bags that he will take up 11 flights of stairs.
Aladghm and Zake are crucial to livelihood of the Hasoon family explains Ahmed's 33-year-old son Hamid as he positions more marble slabs on one of his family's six donkeys that work on the apartment block, 30 miles north of Jerusalem.
'They are part of our family and we take good care of them,' he says. 'They work very hard and without them we would have nothing. They are why we get these jobs.
'But we treat them well, we care for them. Some people don't.'
The Hasoon family, who live five kilometres from the site, make around £200 a week for working on the increasing number of high rise blocks being built on the slopes of the narrow valley that frames Nablus, the economic capital of Palestine.
'I look at Nablus and see the city that donkeys built,' adds Mr Wass. 'Nablus is in a growth spurt because economy of Israel and West Bank is growing quite rapidly, and they are building where-ever you can see.
'Land is at a premium and the buildings are getting closer and closer together so there is no room to get modern machinery in which is where the donkeys come in because they are small and nimble.
The Safe Haven charity, which organises free veterinary and farrier treatment for the builder donkeys and takes in abandoned or wounded donkeys at its base, is facing a funding crisis that threatens its mercy mission.
'We are saving donkeys every day but funds are running out and right now we cannot go on beyond December 22 - we won't even make Christmas Eve,' says Mr Wass
The pitiful procession continues throughout the day with the donkeys picking their way through power cables, rubble and past the open lift shaft to deliver their loads
Their hooves regularly slip on the polished marble and then it is on to the gravel-strewn makeshift stairs laden with builder bags draped over their backs as they deliver higher up into the block in the Rafidia district
Aladghm and Zake are crucial to livelihood of the Hasoon family explains Ahmed's 33-year-old son Hamid as he loads up two of his family's six donkeys that work on the apartment block, 30 miles north of Jerusalem
'We are finding that our regular visits with free check-ups is making a difference with some owners who now think more about their animals' welfare.
'But other donkeys are not so lucky and have to endure dreadful conditions. We recently saved one that had an axe wound to its back.'
Stark evidence of the donkeys' plight is regularly delivered to the charity's outreach centre in Nablus.
Dr Rakan Salous, a 28-year-old university-educated vet from Nablus, who inspected Zake and Aladghm on the building site, says injured donkeys are often abandoned as owners don't want them back.
'The injuries we see are mostly from slipping on the stairs or back sores and swollen joints from the heavy weights.'
Dr Salous, who also completed a course studying donkey welfare in the UK, sometimes sleeps at the base as the treatment list can stretch to 60 donkeys on a busy, market day.
A limping donkey found tethered to a hook with an injured leg is groomed, fed and placed in a pen next to three-month-old Nicoll, who was abandoned at three days old.
'She was just left outside the centre because she was a distraction to her mother's work efforts,' adds Mr Wass, who was awarded his MBE for his work on the RSPCA's responses to outbreaks of foot-and-mouth, avian flu and seal distemper virus.
'Owners don't want foals because they cannot work and the maternal bond stops their mothers working so they have to go. They are just left by the side of the road. Some die from dehydration, others get hit by cars. Nicoll was very lucky.'
The Hasoon family, who live five kilometres from the site, make around £200 a week for working on the increasing number of high rise blocks being built on the slopes of the narrow valley that frames Nablus, the economic capital of Palestine
'I look at Nablus and see the city that donkeys built,' adds Mr Wass. 'Nablus is in a growth spurt because economy of Israel and West Bank is growing quite rapidly, and they are building where-ever you can see
'We are finding that our regular visits with free check-ups is making a difference with some owners who now think more about their animals' welfare, said Mr Wass
Mr Wass adds: 'But other donkeys are not so lucky and have to endure dreadful conditions. We recently saved one that had an axe wound to its back'
Back at the charity's main sanctuary, ten miles from the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, volunteers and staff care for 252 donkeys on a tight three-acre site sandwiched between two avocado groves.
Burnie is one of 12 donkeys receiving intensive medical care. He was doused with petrol and set alight suffering burns across his body that need regular attention to soothe the pain and ward off infection.
The Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land charity, originally founded by a British Airways stewardess, hit tough times after currency fluctuations added almost one third to their running costs and a management changeover caused administrative complications.
Mr Wass said the organisation was being restructured and running costs reduced to save money and that Princess Alexandra had recently renewed her patronage for another three years.
The re-shaped sanctuary now restores donkeys to health and then sends them to olive, avocado and orange farms.
'The donkeys graze and fertilise naturally in a secure, fenced off area with adequate shade and water supplies,' adds Mr Wass.
Stark evidence of the donkeys' plight is delivered to the charity's outreach centre in Nablus. Dr Rakan Salous, a 28-year-old vet from Nablus, who inspected Zake and Aladghm on the building site, says injured donkeys are often abandoned as owners don't want them back
At the charity's main sanctuary, ten miles from the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, volunteers and staff care for 252 donkeys on a tight three-acre site sandwiched between two avocado groves
'The farmer doesn't have to put down nitrate fertilisers and can make up 20% extra because the produce is now organic so it is complete solution for the farmer, the donkey and environment.
'Some of this produce will end up in British homes and it will be heart-warming to know that, in time, the public is playing a part in a better future for these donkeys.
'Our ambition is to raise animal welfare awareness in the Holy Land, give hope to badly-treated donkeys and, eventually, make builder donkeys obsolete as pit ponies in the UK.'
:: A donation of £3.50 will buy a comfortable head collar without chains and £10 will buy enough antibiotics to treat ten donkeys for a week.