Dr Elisabeth Svendsen

To this end she created the Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys. One of the trust’s six purpose-built centres is at Eccup, north Leeds. Over a 40 year period, her sanctuary based at Sidmouth, Devon, has taken in over 14,000 donkeys and mules from the UK, Ireland and the Continent. Her charity has also extended its work overseas.

In an account of her life’s work, she wrote: “I suppose I’ve always loved donkeys, and through my career it seems as though it was made for me to be with donkeys the rest of my life.”

In recognition of her work, Dr Svendsen was awarded an MBE (1980), an Honorary Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery by Glasgow University (1992), the Lord Erskine Award by the RSPCA (2001), and an Honorary Doctorate by Edinburgh University in 2009.

Dr Svendsen, who has died aged 81, was born in Elland, her father, Vincent Knowles, owning the pipe works company, WT Knowles & Son Ltd.

She went to St Mary’s High School, Halifax and then Brighouse Grammar School. From there, she acquired a place, specialising in teaching children with special needs, at Rachel McMillan Training College, Greenwich. After qualifying in 1951, she joined the staff at West Vale School, near Halifax.

Her career as a teacher ended in 1953, however, when she joined her father’s firm as company secretary.

In 1954, she met and married Niels Svendsen. The pair met in March that year when her car caught fire and Mr Svendsen came to her rescue with a fire extinguisher. They were married seven months later and had four children, Lise, Paul, Clive and Sarah.

Dr Svendsen left the family firm in 1955 when she and her husband moved to Bridgewater where he got a job and they developed a little clothes drier called the Nippy Nappy Drier.

It was a successful venture which they sold out to Thorn Industries. With that money, they purchased the Salston Hotel in Ottery St Mary, Devon. Dr Svendsen would later explain that one of her main reasons for buying the hotel was its six acres of land, allowing her to keep her very first, donkey, a jenny called Naughty Face.

This animal had the unfortunate urge to bray at around 4.30am, disturbing the hotel’s guests. Dr Svendsen’s solution was to get her a companion, Angelina, but both donkeys proved to be in foal, and soon there were four donkeys.

Dr Svendsen joined the Donkey Breeds Society, learned a great deal about donkeys and eventually became the society’s representative for the South West.

A visit to Exeter market one morning was to change her life. There she saw seven donkeys in the most wretched condition which were sold to give beach rides. She tried to buy one of them, but that attempt failed, and about three months later, a guest at her hotel reported seeing a beach donkey – obviously very ill – being beaten by its owner. The Svendsens went off at once in their Land Rover and with great difficulty got the animal in the back of it. There and then, Dr Svendsen resolved not to breed donkeys, but to look after them.

She began taking in sick donkeys, and was surprised how many there were. By the time her collection had grown to 37, all the profits from the hotel were going to the sanctuary. In 1973 she took the step of registering as a charity, and one early consequence was a phone call informing her that she had been left a “legacy” which turned out to be 204 donkeys which she had to take possession of immediately, or they would be shot.　

In 1975 she founded the Slade Centre, offering donkey riding therapy to children with special needs, and the following year, the International Donkey Protection Trust, working overseas, and in 1989, the Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys.

Dr Svendsen was a prolific author and she also played a key role in setting up the Companion Animal Welfare Council, which acts in an advisory capacity towards future animal welfare legislation.　

Divorced in 1982, she is survived by her children Lise, Paul, Clive, Sarah, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

A memorial service is to be held on July 1 at 11am at The Donkey Sanctuary, Sidmouth, Devon.