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“I can fore-see a time when the donkey will take its place alongside the dove as an icon of peace,” says Pascual Rovira. “This is an animal that has been unjustly maligned and mistreated throughout history and it’s time that serious respect was paid to what is actually a tremendously intelligent and loveable creature.” The man whom Nobel laureate Camilo José Cela called ‘the donkey’s advocate’ describes himself as a ‘self-trained assologist.’

The working donkey or mule is an increasingly rare sight in Spain, although it is still occasionally seen in parts of rural Andalucía and Galicia. At the end of the civil war (1939) there were an estimated 1,250,000 donkeys in the country but the figure is now down to just 65,000. More shocking still, of the sixteen surviving European species no less than six native Spanish breeds are on the verge of extinction.

In 1989 Pascual Rovira set up the ‘Asociación para la Defensa del Borrico’ (ADEBO) in the little town of Rute, in the heart of the lovely Parque de la Sierra sub-Bética. Although hardly a highlight of an Andalusian tour, Rute is virtually smack-bang in the centre of the region’s cultural ‘golden triangle’ - equidistant from Cordoba, Granada and Seville. Yet it is known for little besides a couple of successful sweet-manufactures and a museum of Anis.

It is traditionally an agricultural town, surrounded by the ubiquitous corduroy-striped patchwork of olive-groves that are typical of this part of Cordoba province, but there is now only one working donkey left in Rute. The only time that donkeys are seen on the streets here is when Pascual mobilises his herd in demonstration, such as his famous march against the war in Iraq. A Reuters photographer was on hand to cover the march and a report was aired under the headline ‘The Rebellion of the Animals.’ The donkey had taken another step towards its place as an icon of peace.

Pascual Rovira is as tireless in his enthusiasm for ‘assology’ as he is imaginative in his use of media exposure. His efforts to publicise the plight of the donkey have already gone a long way towards putting Rute on the map. Pascual has donated donkeys as gifts to Prince Felipe and his wife on the occasion of the recent wedding, to the royal Princesses, to his late-friend Camilo José Cela and to Bill Clinton and the publicity that he has provoked has brought a lot of famous faces to this quiet town.

He revived an ancient tradition whereby a breeding donkey (by the name of ‘Royal Gift’) was given by the Spanish king to Abraham Lincoln, but it seems that Pascual’s natural mischievousness got the better of him. He ‘inadvertently’ allowed a stallion by the name of ‘Revolución’ (a gift to Fidel Castro) to do it’s best to impregnate Clinton’s doe-eyed mare!

Revolución has since sired eight-seven Cuban foals but word of the ‘affair’ was leaked and Clinton never made an attempt to collect his ‘shop-soiled’ gift. The spurned Milagritos is still living a life of leisure in the ADEBO corral. Pascual and his team of five workers are currently looking after fifty-eight donkeys but many more have found homes with friends, well-wishers and donkey lovers. The assologist estimates that it costs about €500 a year to maintain a single donkey and the struggling association has finally been able to secure some funding from the local government.

More than a hundred donkeys have been rescued from all over Spain and there are representatives of most of the national breeds. The most famous inmate here however is certainly the unfortunate ‘Mandela’, a north African donkey who spent five years in ‘solitary confinement’ in a tiny shed in Alpujarras without ever being allowed out.

“When Mandela arrived here he was quite depressed and his hearing was in a very sorry state,” Pascual recalls, “But I’m a big Bob Dylan fan, and one of the things that helped Mandela adjust was listening to Blowing in the Wind on the cassette player in the stables.” Pascual counts Mandela as one of his best friends: “I think he understands me about better than anyone else I know,” he jokes, “and certainly better than my wife.”

Apart from Mandela, Pascual’s greatest passion is for his beloved Andaluz-Cordobesa donkeys. There were less than a hundred confirmed examples of this breed surviving when ADEBO made one of its first rescues and saved no fewer than five of these endangered animals from a slaughterhouse in Cordoba. One of the finest living examples is ADEBO’s prized stallion Almorejo, a statuesque and powerful animal that reaches almost sixteen hands (1.6 metres) at the shoulder and is more noble and poised than most horses.

“This is the Mercedes of the ass world,” says Pascual as we stare at what is by far the biggest donkey I have ever seen. During the days of Moorish Andalucía such a stud donkey might have been worth as much as forty slaves! “Unfortunately for the Andaluz-Cordobesa breed, the poor Spanish campesinos found that the little North African donkeys were more suited to the small patches of land that surrounded their homesteads and were much cheaper to run.” Pascual explains. “In effect they had to make the logical choice between a battered but serviceable Suzuki Jimny and a gas-guzzling Mercedes 4X4.”

Apart from struggling to maintain this impressive breed and to rescue mistreated animals Pascual is also working hard to change public opinion. The donkey has traditionally been an object of scorn in ancient fables and there are countless Spanish phrases that define the burro as a slow, stupid and stubborn animal. Modern Spanish dictionaries give a second definition of burro as: ‘idiot’, ‘oaf’, ‘stupid’ and even ‘randy.’

“‘Burro’ should be a synonym for tenderness, intelligence and loyalty,” says Pascual. He feels so strongly about this that he has petitioned the ‘Spanish Royal Academy of Language’ to convince them to change the definition of burro in future dictionaries. Every few days there is another school visit to the ADEBO donkey sanctuary and the tireless Pascual does his best to change the opinions of the next generation towards the animal that has played such an important part in the taming of his country’s wildest regions.

Maligned, mistreated and now being allowed to fall into extinction, the future of the Spanish burro may well rest with the man who has set himself up with such determination as ‘the donkey’s advocate.’ It is high-time that this creature, upon whose back the agricultural might of ancient Spain was built, had its new ‘hay-day.’

‘Asociación para la Defensa del Borrico’ can be reached by email at: fundacioncasadelburro@yahoo.es

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