In India, it’s common to see horses, bullocks, and donkeys toiling under the searing sun or out in the pouring rain, hauling backbreaking loads and flinching beneath the crack of a whip. Many bullocks are forced to work in sugarcane mills, where they spend long days pulling dangerously unbalanced carts. They are also used for plowing fields in the heat and performing other grueling tasks, even though many of them are injured, malnourished, and ill. Donkeys are sorely abused in brick kilns, to which they haul heavy loads of bricks on their backs from the molding yards. Since there’s little or no padding between the loads and their skin, they develop sores, and if they fall and won’t rise when whipped, they are left to die.

Animal Rahat constantly strives to improve the lives of thousands of working animals and their owners in poverty-stricken regions of Maharashtra, India. A committed team of veterinarians, veterinary assistants, and animal caretakers runs our vital organization, enabling veterinarians to be on call for emergencies and to dispense advice all day, every day.

Now, there’s a unique opportunity to expand our operations so that we can help even more working animals: Animal Rahat has purchased 10 acres of land outside Sangli, Maharashtra, to build a new sanctuary that will allow for up to 50 working animals to retire in peace after years of drudgery, pain, abuse, malnutrition, and neglect. The new facility will also improve the lives of other beleaguered animals who, while not forced to work, certainly still suffer greatly. These include stray dogs, at whom people often throw stones or even acid. But we cannot complete the sanctuary and provide animal residents with the long-term care that they need without your help.

We know from experience what a tremendous difference a little TLC can make in a working animal’s life. When Animal Rahat found a camel named Waheed, he was being forced to dance and give rides by a traveling peddler, even though he was extremely thin, lame, infested with parasites, and so dangerously dehydrated that his hump was nearly non-existent. But after just one night at our facility (wearing a blanket that our caretakers made especially for him), Waheed’s condition started to improve. Now, he is healthy and even has a soulmate, a camel named Tracy, whom Animal Rahat rescued from a circus.

The new retirement sanctuary will be equipped with a veterinary exam room to provide animals with the modern veterinary care that they need to get and stay healthy. The grounds will also feature an education center to train working animals’ owners on humane care, hold on-site veterinary sessions with law-enforcement and government officials, and offer outreach programs to teach children to respect and have empathy for animals. But to reach our goal of rescuing, retiring, and caring for more working animals at this new sanctuary, we need your support.

Your compassionate contribution will help us dig a borewell and install a water pipeline system throughout the sanctuary so that the animals will always have access to clean drinking water. We’re also going to build shelters and plant trees to protect animals from the elements.

Why wait to save an animal’s life? Right now, you can help us get this wonderful new facility off the ground and provide some of the most abused animals on Earth with the tranquility and security that they’ve been denied.