Holly Williams, Sky correspondent

Two British pensioners have devoted their lives to rescuing the “slumdog donkeys” of Delhi and even have an ambulance for the animals.

In India’s capital, poverty is a trap that ensnares hundreds of thousands of people.

Many of them live in illegally-built shanty towns where raw sewage flows in the street. Malnourishment and disease are both commonplace.

It is little wonder, then, that animal welfare is not much of a concern for some of India’s poorest people.

But two retirees from Essex would like to change that.

Jean and Bob Harrison, who first fell in love with India when they travelled there in the 1960s, have a soft spot for the donkeys of Delhi.

“When you’ve helped a donkey, you see something there saying ‘thanks’,” Bob said of his connection with the animals. 

Bob and Jean Harrison help donkeys in India’s capital 

There are around 3,000 donkeys labouring in the city’s building sites. Laden down with bricks and sandbags, many are worked until they die.

“The only time a donkey will ever give up, is when it can’t do any more and it lies down,” explained Jean. “And you know then – that’s it.”

With their limited means, Jean and Bob have moved to India on a mission to bring medical care to the donkeys, as well as a little love.

Their cottage at home has been let so they can afford the rent on a house in Delhi.

They have converted a donated van into a donkey ambulance, and with the help of local vet Dr Bibender the couple now spend their days scouring building sites for animals in need of urgent care. 

The couple use this vehicle to rescue donkeys and take them to the vet 

They don’t have the money to set up their own clinic, so instead pay for the donkeys they rescue to be treated at a local veterinary hospital. The animals arrive emaciated and ill. Many have open, festering wounds on their backs and legs.

Within a few weeks the donkeys are unrecognisable – well-fed and strong.

But the economic realities of Delhi’s slums make for some heartbreaking decisions. The donkeys are valuable assets for the men who own them, and many are unwilling to allow them to be taken away for treatment, even when it is urgently needed.

On a recent trip to a building site, Bob and Jean found a donkey so exhausted it could no longer stand. 

The Harrisons have given up life in Britain to save donkeys like these 

As it lay in the dust, several dogs hovered nearby. Weakened donkeys are sometimes attacked and eaten in the night by roaming packs of dogs.

But Bob could only persuade the owner to hand over the donkey for treatment in return for another animal that he had previously mistreated, and that Dr Bibender had since nursed back to health.

“I just hate the place it’s got to go, but you see he wouldn’t have let us have this donkey if we hadn’t taken the other one back,” explained Jean.

For Delhi’s thousands of slumdog donkeys there’s still little hope of escaping a life of endless toil.

But Jean and Bob Harrison have devoted their lives to giving them the tenderness they have never before known. 

Bob Harrison: “You see something there saying ‘thanks’”

NEDDI SAYS – WELL DONE HARRISONS, THANKS FOR YOUR BRILLIANT HELP TO THESE DONKEYS IN NEED.