Animal advocacy
In 1969, Svendsen, a lifelong donkey enthusiast, bought her first donkey, named Naughty Face.[2] Soon afterwards, Svendsen noticed seven neglected donkeys housed in a small livestock pen in a market in Exeter.[3] She tried unsuccessfully to purchase the donkey in the worst condition of the group.[1]
The experience of the neglected donkeys in Exeter led Svendsen to establish The Donkey Sanctuary in 1969. She began taking in elderly and disabled donkeys. She became responsible for the care of thirty-eight donkeys by 1973, an expensive undertaking.[2] She was contacted in June 1974 by a lawyer for a late elderly woman named Violet Philpin, who had bequeathed Svendsen 204 donkeys.[2] Svendsen gave up her hotel to work with The Donkey Sanctuary full-time.[2]
The Donkey Sanctuary, founded by Svendsen and headquartered in Sidmouth, Devon, has cared for more than 14,500 donkeys as of 2011.[2] The sanctuary, which now has a veterinary hospital and overnight accommodations, employs approximately 500 people worldwide, including sixty in the United Kingdom who investigate reports of abused donkeys.[2] Svendsen expanded the sanctuary to Latin America, Asia and Africa. She founded a donkey hospital with emergency room in Ethiopia, where the lifespan of a donkey is just nine years.[2] Mobile donkey clinics have also been dispatched in Mexico, Kenya and India.[2]
Svendsen established a sister charity to the Donkey Sanctuary, called the Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys, during the mid-1970s.[1] The trust provides riding therapy between donkeys and children with special needs.[3] During her career, Svendsen authored more than twelve books, including two autobiographies, Down Among the Donkeys in 1981 and For the Love of Donkeys in 1993, as well as a series of children's books.[2]
Svendsen became a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1980.[3] In 2001, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals awarded her with the Lord Erskine Award.[3][4]
