Talk:The Donkey Sanctuary

Request for Assistance with COI Edits: Improving the quality of references in the History section

Hi there, I’d like to help improve the quality of this article.

As displayed on my User page, I have a COI and am currently employed by The Donkey Sanctuary – so will need to collaborate on this with a willing Wikipedian.

As a starting point, I’ve noticed that a lot of the ‘History’ section is currently lacking references.

I have collated sources to support currently unreferenced statements where possible.

With the earliest period of The Donkey Sanctuary’s history, it’s hard to get completely away from primary sources as Dr Svendsen's autobiographies are the best sources for this era.

I have, however, added in secondary sources where possible, including the Charity Commission website, a newspaper clipping, and the 1980 New Years Honour List as published in *The London Gazette*.

I’ve incorporated them into the existing text below. It’s my first time using wikitext, so please let me know if I have made any errors:

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The Donkey Sanctuary was founded in 1969 by Elisabeth Svendsen. It was registered as a charity in 1973.

Svendsen was prompted to start the sanctuary following a visit to Exeter Market when she saw seven small donkeys crammed into a small pen. After she tried unsuccessfully to buy the donkey in the worst condition, she decided that instead of breeding donkeys she would try and save them.

By 1973 Svendsen was caring for 38 donkeys. In June 1974, she received a phone call from a solicitor who was the Executor of the Estate of the late Miss Violet Philpin, who had been running the Helping Hand Animal Welfare League Donkey Sanctuary near Reading, Berkshire. The solicitor explained that Svendsen had been left a legacy of 204 donkeys. At that time, advertisements were appearing regularly in UK publications appealing for financial support for Violet Philpin's Donkey Sanctuary, to the extent that the name Violet Philpin became very familiar in Britain with the care and welfare of donkeys.

After the UK Charity Commission allowed the two charities to merge, the Donkey Sanctuary purchased Slade House Farm near Sidmouth in south Devon. Since then more than 14,500 donkeys have passed through the Donkey Sanctuary's gates in the UK and Ireland. The charity operates in the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe. It also conducts international operations in Africa and Asia. In 1980 Svendsen was made an MBE for her services to animal welfare.

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If the above is acceptable, then I will move to the other sections of the article.

I’ve noticed that a lot of information is now out of date, so I will be providing updates to the text as well as references.

I don’t have a time estimate for when these will be ready but will submit them here for discussion when I have them.

Thank you in advance for any help.

OB TDS (talk) 08:32, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi, yes that looks basically fine to me. Just one minor point (which relates to the current article text rather than to your suggested edit)...

The text says she decided that instead of breeding donkeys she would try and save them, but there isn't any earlier reference to the idea of Svendsen breeding donkeys - so the idea of there being some kind of change of plan doesn't seem to work. My feeling is that either (a) there needs to be some mention earlier in the article of the fact that Svendsen had intended to breed donkeys, or (b) the whole idea of breeding donkeys isn't really relevant and can be dropped entirely from the text.

I don't really mind one way or the other, and I'm happy to leave it to your discretion whether it is an important part of the story, but I do think we would need to go for either (a) or (b) above, rather than with the current text.

Does that make sense as a suggestion?

Regards, Axad12 (talk) 11:57, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Can I also suggest that the passage to the extent that the name Violet Philpin became very familiar in Britain with the care and welfare of donkeys would be improved if very familiar was replaced with associated. It's a minor change, but I think it is more correct to say "associated ... with" rather than "very familiar ... with". Axad12 (talk) 12:04, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Some further copy editing suggestions:

Section: Europe

1) change also provides to “provides”

2) have been neglected. But others should read “have been neglected but others”

3) well-being should, I suspect, read “wellbeing”

4) In 2009 the winner was the town of Filey: probably out of date and best removed?

Section: Worldwide

5) administered over 300,000 treatments should say “administerS over 300,000 treatments”.

6) by poor harnessing or whipping: I'd suggest it would be better if this read “by whipping or poor harnessing”, to avoid any possible misinterpretation that “poor whipping” is intended (if you see what I mean).

7) in some areas, terrible wounds: I think the comma here is redundant and ought to be removed.

Section: International Donkey Week

8) I’d suggest expanding this section, if only with some basic details of the scope of activities. Also, presumably it occurs in the UK?

9) Also, it may be necessary to remove people come from far and wide as (while no doubt true) that may be a claim that will prove difficult to provide a supporting reference for.

Section: Educational Work

10) vet students change to “vetinary students”

Section: Elizabeth Svendsen Trust

11) to assist children with special needs lead a fuller life may be better if it read “to assist children with special needs TO lead a fuller life”

Section: Slade House Farm

12) Update visitor estimate figures.

Hopefully these notes are of assistance. Best wishes, Axad12 (talk) 13:23, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi, Axad12; thank you for the quick response. Sorry I've taken a couple of days to get back to you; I thought I had email notifications switched on for this article, but I need to adjust a setting somewhere.

That's a great observation, and I suggest we go with your option (b).

Dr Svendsen's relationship with donkey breeding is slightly complicated - she never actively bred donkeys, only briefly considering it, and was an area representative for the Donkey Breed Society.

However, I think that information would be more pertinent to her article instead of the charity's article.

I agree with your choice of language regarding 'very familiar' and 'associated'.

Regarding your other recommended updates, I agree with all of your language updates. However, I would advise that these sections are pretty out of date now, and I'm actively working on sourcing references. So, it may be worth waiting on making your suggested updates until we know how significant the broader updates will be.

Thank you again, Axad12; I appreciate your support in improving this article. OB TDS (talk) 10:29, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

OB TDS, thanks for getting back to me. I'm happy to help.

Most of my volunteer work is dealing with requests in the same COI edit request queue, which often tends to be businesspeople, academics and companies trying (unusually unsuccessfully) to add promotional material to their own articles. This request makes a refreshing change!

As per your comments above I will hold back from making any changes for now until the broader updates are received.

The best way to ensure you receive notification of responses in this thread is to click 'subscribe/unsubscribe' at the top right of the thread. I have used your username as a link at the top of this post, however, to hopefully ensure you receive notification of this note.

Best wishes, Axad12 (talk) 08:44, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

References