Bill Austin (who is already on the list) sent me an email awhile ago to let me know that Basil the Donkey wasn’t the only “famous” Basil the donkey…

I’m guessing Bill did a wee search for “Basil the donkey” and found this: Friends of the Cyprus Donkey - Our History.

Say what now?

Friends of the Cyprus Donkey is a donkey sanctuary in Cyprus. You heard me…someone has to take care of retired donkeys right?

As it turns out, the donkey that started the sanctuary was named Basil.

I immediately emailed the sanctuary and got a response the following day! Maria Nicolaou let me know that the sanctuary is still there, currently caring for 126 donkeys. Basil has passed away (dying in 1994, which was the year the sanctuary came into existence) but he’s immortalized in their history. Since the inception of the sanctuary, they’ve cared for over 370 donkeys.

How cool is that?

Now I know there are a million charities out there; everyone has their hand out. Even I’ve got a “donate” button in the left sidebar…And there are a million great causes. But I would have never thought that a sanctuary for donkeys would exist somewhere. It’s amazing that there are enough people out there who care enough about an animal like the donkey for such a sanctuary to exist. I guess it shows you the brighter side of humanity…

Of course, doing a bit more research, I know realize that there are many donkey sanctuaries all over the world! Here are some of those links:

The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada

The Donkey Sanctuary in the UK

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue (California)
Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary (Australian)

Dharma Donkey Sanctuary (India)

Quick point: Anyone that abuses any animal is a royal ass. There’s no reason for it. Don’t do it. You want to hit someone, mistreat someone, starve someone, do it to yourself and leave the rest of us and our animals alone.

On a side note — Bill Austin has another site I wanted to help promote, called Quotes - Famous Quotes. It has nothing to do with donkeys, but since Bill drew my attention to the Cyprus donkey sanctuary…It’s a great place for a quick chuckle or a smidge of inspiration.

(Related Tags: cyprus, donkeys, bill austin, famous quotes, animal shelters)