Prevention

ACE's founding purpose is to improve the lives of all animals in Egypt.  Our first centre is in Luxor, a high profile tourist city, but with a huge number of working animals supporting the tourist industry.

ACE knows that most visitors rarely see the thousands of working animals serving the needs of the tourist industry.  They are still used as the main transport for most things, from the bricks, steel, and cement used in the building, to the huge amount of food and drink consumed in Luxor every day.   These animals are almost always overloaded and overworked.

Luxor is a hot, dry, sandy, dusty city so the animals are given what they need, washing and grooming in clean fresh water at the ACE hospital.  This also allows us to give them a preventative medical examination involving checking for lesions (soon fly-blown in the city's atmosphere), checking their teeth and bit, inspecting the harness and spraying with citronella to keep the flies at bay.  ACE provides the advice and facilities to allow the working animals to have their tack removed, a roll in a sand pit to stretch and relax their overworked backs, and quite often the only time they get off their feet.  The sand also helps with pest control.

ACE provides advice and facilities to wash the sweat, sand and dirt off the animals, which builds up and causes sores when being constantly rubbed by the tack.  This tack is all too often never removed otherwise, the animals are usually just tied to a wall overnight before the next days work begins.

The pictures below shows a mare who was desperate for water, but her owner was convinced that she was too hot and that it might kill her!  Mad, cruel even you might think, but he really loved this mare and truly believed this.  Unfortunately years of misguidance mean that most owners in Upper Egypt are convinced of this.  This is why Education is SO important in our work.

Don't worry this 'orange' donkey has not been 'Tango'ed'!  This is henna, and the owners use if for various reasons, decoration, or good-luck.  The henna hand-prints on the horse are a superstitious belief to safe guard against the 'evil eye' and normally means that it is a new animal.  Some also believe that henna has healing qualities and can make the animal stronger.  However, used in large quantities like this it dries the skin, and can cause skin irritation.