Hello there friends, friends of friends, and family of friends.
Now then, as most of all of you know, I am an avid animal lover who would happily give up my entire house as a shelter and indulgent retreat for all creatures great and small if Mike would let me.
Shock horror, big surprise, Mike will not let me, however, he has been a love and given a lot of his time in working with me to help raise money for SPANA which is brilliant!
I have always wanted to find an animal charity that I felt very strongly about, and which gave me a profound and deep rooted motivation to get off my little bottom and work hard for. I genuinely believe that I have found such good values with SPANA.
On Monday 18th April 2011, Michael and I have decided to walk from York Railway Station, all the way back to our house in Horsforth for SPANA, and it would be just lovely of you, if you could sponsor us to do such a thing. The walk is approximately 27.5 miles and will take roughly 9 hours to do....if we get a spurt on. If anyone would like to join us for the entire trip, or even to just meet us somewhere along the way for moral then you are more than welcome. Any support would be greatly appreciated by no only us, but all of the donkeys, horses and mules around the world :D. I think I hear them now chanting "NEIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHH!!" which means...."Hey Thanks everyone!"
SPANA is a UK based charity which stands for the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad. They desperately seek out ways in which to improve the lives and welfare of working animals by providing free veterinary care and educational animal welfare support to local people in some of the world’s poorest countries. SPANA also successfully broadens its interests by establishing emergency programmes in times of crisis and disaster as well as outreach programmes which support similar projects all over the world.
As you can see, there is a fantastic and valuable dualistic benefit for both people and animals in terms of its charitable approach, and has been described as both…
“an animal charity that helps people, and a people charity that helps animals.”
Such a statement is true because without provisions to meet the welfare of these four legged creatures, local people would not be able to earn a living, and without the welfare education programs, the animals would be more likely to suffer.
Donkeys and other such hard working and beautiful creatures, like our selves, feel excruciating pain, suffering and distress, which is totally unjust. However, unlike our selves, they can not come home after a hard day at the brick works and have their aches and pains eased by a warm bath, hot meal and sympathetic ear to listen. They can not tell us to STOP the abuse, because they simply “can’t take it anymore” or tell us how much they are hurting. Instead they must silently and powerlessly, endure such suffering in horrendous conditions, day by day, growing frailer until they are rendered "useless" by their owners and discarded. Such creature’s fate is to either starve to death after being abandoned, or die a slow and painful death through sheer exhaustion.
They have NO choice. They rely on our help. Please, please show them a little kindness and consider them in your charitable donations, which will help to ease the lives of such gentle giants and provide their owners with the welfare education that both owner and animal depend on.
Lots of Thank yous,
Love Franny and Michael xxx
Please visit http://www.spana.org/about-us/what-we-do/ for more information and click "videos" on this page to see some of the great work that SPANA do.
