I'm delighted to bring you the latest film clip of our adorable Ashley!

Ashley was sadly orphaned at birth and thanks to the dedication of staff caring for him, and the company of the donkeys he now lives with, he is growing from strength to strength.

Do you remember the plight of Laurel, Hardy and Tim and their rescue from terrible conditions back in July 2009? Having spent over six months being nursed back to health by the staff at our holding base in Buxton, Derbyshire, the trio have arrived and would love to meet you here at the Sanctuary when you next visit.

Here at The Donkey Sanctuary we aim to prevent cruelty and suffering among donkeys and mules anywhere in the world and to ensure their welfare needs come first, second and third.

This newly released DVD narrated by our founder, Dr Elisabeth Svendsen, has been produced to commemorate the Sanctuary's 40th anniversary to help raise awareness of our work.

Did you see donkey Mickey D’s story on BBC Animals 24:7? The programme aired on 9th December 2009 and told the story Mickey’s relinquishment to the Sanctuary last year and his relocation to a new life in Devon.

On Friday 11th December 2009, everyone from the PR Office (Claire Shapcott, Chris Phillips, Suzi Cretney and myself) helped with the Sanctuary’s annual Candlelight evening. From 9.30am until 7pm, we, along with many other staff, were out in force helping to display and light some of the 15,000 candles placed around the grounds.

I am delighted to add this new film of Ashley to the website but I must tell you it is a little out of date due to some technical problems I have had!

I visited Laurel, Hardy and Tim last week. Touched by their plight, I have been keeping a watchful eye on them ever since they were rescued in July 2009 from a dark and grimy stable where they were all slowly starving to death.

Sadly for one little foal born at the Sanctuary on Tuesday 20th October 2009, his mother tragically died giving birth. We are now hand-rearing Ashley as a suitable foster mare could not be found.

I was out and about yesterday taking photos around the Sanctuary and took a walk by the hospital paddocks where there was a donkey standing quite content with a divot of grass in his mouth... I was intrigued and went to find out more about this donkey called Micky.

Zena was born here at the Sanctuary three weeks ago. Unfortunately she was born prematurely and staff found her curled up in the corner of the stable at about 6.30 am. She was very quiet and not at all well and we soon realised that her back legs were not working properly - she was unable to stand up or walk.

This lovely group of donkeys were waiting for their afternoon feed. Those of you who own donkeys will know that they are creatures of habit and when it comes to feeding time, they are very punctual. As you will hear in the video clip, some of the donkeys were beginning to get quite vocal!

I’ve been to see our recently rescued donkeys, Laurel and Hardy, and Tim the pony and wow, what a difference.

Here's my video blog for you to watch, so you can see for yourselves what a difference Joy and the team at our holding base in Buxton have made - in just one week.

You may remember Brian from the recent story and video clip Maible gives birth. Brian was born in our Isolation Unit on 14th July and he is now starting to develop into a real little character being very independent and inquisitive.

Jasper has recently come out of our veterinary hospital having had an operation on a tendon in one of his back legs to help with his 'Ballerina Syndrome'. Although he's now back with the other donkeys, he requires daily therapy from the grooms.

On Tuesday 14th July a little dark brown foal was born here at the Sanctuary. We have named him Brian in memory of Brian McConnell, who used to be a donkey transport driver for the Sanctuary who sadly passed away recently.