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| Helping the horses and donkeys of Afghanistan |
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| Animals | |
| Written by Danny Penman | |
 For 32 days, Zarga the horse carried four-year-old Gul Behar through the Afghan mountains to the safety of Pakistan.Zarga suffered terrible injuries but now she is being cared for by a British charity dedicated to helping horses injured in warfare. “Zarga’s story is not unique,” said Rafi Alam, who works for the Brooke Hospital for Animals in Peshawar, Western Pakistan. “We treat more than a hundred horses a day. Only the British seem to understand that animals also suffer in warfare. By helping the horses of Afghanistan, we are also helping the innocent people of the war.” Zarga, whose name in Pashtun means heart of a lion, helped carry the six children of the Khurram family and all their belongings for 450 miles. Walking for 14 hours a day, over 15,000 foot mountain passes, through cavernous gorges and burning deserts, Zarga never once let the family down. When she arrived in Peshawar she was worn-out and close to collapse. She was covered in sores and her hooves were split and leaking fluid. Without the expert help of the Brooke Hospital, she would have died within days. “We heard of the British animal hospital before we left Afghanistan,” said Mohamed Khurram, father of Gul Behar. “We hoped that if we survived the journey we could get treatment for her. She has been a good horse for us.” 
In Afghanistan, a horse is a means of transport, of communication and a way to plough the fields. In Zarga’s case, she has also become a member of the family. The Brooke Hospital now has several teams of paravets and blacksmiths who travel to the world’s trouble spots to help horses. They have worked in Pakistan and Afghanistan for over a decade. Often the animals are so close to death that the kindest thing to do is to humanely kill them. Such a decision is never taken lightly and the vets will do all in their power to save the horses’ lives. More often, a few days of such hearty food as oats and hay will get a horse back on its feet again. The horses can then go back to helping the Afghan refugees rebuild their lives. The British Royal Airforce has also begun helping the stricken animals of Afghanistan. Instead of dropping bombs, some of their formidable firepower has been diverted to delivering supplies of hay and oats to feed the starving horses of Afghanistan. The Brooke Hospital charity has its roots in the First World War. Dorothy Brooke was travelling through Egypt in 1930 and saw thousands if British ex-cavalry horses being forced into hard-labour. They had been reduced to little more than scraps of skin and bone. The magnificent horses, once accustomed to all the comforts of a good life, were forced to work in stone quarries across Egypt. Mrs Brooke and her husband were so horrified by the condition of these war time heroes that she set out to end their suffering. One letter to the ‘Morning Post’ newspaper raised the modern-day equivalent of twenty thousand pounds. Further letters followed and within three years five thousand cavalry horses and mules abandoned in Egypt had been bought and humanely killed. They ended their days in peaceful and loving surroundings in the stables Mrs Brooke had bought for the purpose. But Mrs Brooke soon realised that her task was only just beginning. “She realised that wherever there’s a war, animals will suffer,” said Megan Jackson of the Brooke Hospital. “People tend to forget animals in warfare. They need veterinary care and feeding too. We want to help them.” To help these stricken animals, the charity has opened animal hospitals in many of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries. They have also set-up “flying squads” of blacksmiths and vets who travel to the world’s war zones to help sick and wounded animals. In Peshawar the charity has six flying squads that operate out of three hospitals and a further five teams operate in Afghanistan. Lal Muhammed recently benefited from the work of the flying squads. He said: “It took me six days to reach Peshawar from my hometown. “By the time I arrived my animals were near to death. I was told of a free service being provided by a British charity that wanted to help sick and injured animals, so I took along my horses. Without the Brooke I am certain that my horses would have died, which would have left my family with nothing.” “If animals are injured in warfare we’ll be there to help,” said Megan Jackson. “But in the long run we hope to achieve more by teaching children how to care for their family’s animals.” |
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