Any report of cruelty to animals means that Animal Rahat rescue teams drop everything and go, so when staff members in Uttar Pradesh received an urgent call about an owner who was beating a tethered, pregnant pony, they raced to the scene. A video showed the man striking the pony with what looked like a rake and showed her desperately but vainly trying to escape the thrashing. A large, gaping wound on her face and her partial blindness also made clear that her servitude in India’s harsh haulage trade had been a terrible time for her, but one thing was certain: Her ordeal was ending that day.  

Informing the owner about the fines and jail time he could face if he refused to surrender her, the team quickly secured custody of the pony, named Chameli, and did their best to reassure her with kind words, gentle strokes, and treats, as they drove her to the Ranapur sanctuary. Scars on her body told a woeful tale of a life spent bearing heavy loads under the threat of the whip, even when the exhausted mother-to-be couldn’t go on. But that was all in the past. Initially wary and uncertain, as anyone with her experiences would be, Chameli warmed to her sanctuary caregivers. And just days after her arrival, she gave birth to a happy, energetic foal who will never know anything but love, friendship, and kindness. Staff gave him a moniker fitting for his jubilant personality and his mother’s joy: Jolly.