A couple, along with eight dogs, are walking around Northern Ireland to raise awareness of the dog meat trade in southeast Asia.
Robert Donkers from Ballymoney and his partner Mervyn Espie began their walk on Oct. 2. They plan to walk five days around different locations in Northern Ireland. By all accounts, the walk will be challenging.
The Crew
As reported by Northern Ireland World, Donkers’ eight dogs — Jake, Ronan, Pippa, Hannah, Olive, Madeleine, Violet, and Wilbur — accompany the pair. After Espie suffered two broken hips and spine as a child, doctors told him that he would never walk again. Incredibly, he will make the journey.
Their goal is to raise funds to distribute to organizations that rescue dogs from the meat trade through Donkers’ website, Walking to Save Dogs. On his site, Donkers says he was compelled to begin his campaigns in response to video footage of cruelty to dogs in the meat trade.
The Route
The group’s fundraising trail begins in Ballintoy, then on to the Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills. They plan on walking around Banagher forest and glen the second day before hitting the beach in Portrush and Portstewart the following day. The fourth day should see them at Rathlin Island, which was where the couple held their wedding last year. It was also an historic event, being the first same-gender wedding on the island. Their walk ends in Hilltown for a total of 80 miles.
This isn’t Donkers’ first challenge. He also walked the whole distance of the UK — 1,034 miles — which took him 65 days to complete.
He told the Belfast News that over the past seven years his campaign has raised £20,000 ($23,000 USD) to help save dogs.
“Every year I walk with all my dogs, I try to raise awareness and funds to help organizations to stop the dog meat trade across the world…It’s a really cruel trade, dogs are skinned alive, boiled alive and barbecued alive. I have seen it happening and I can’t let it go. I want to stop it,” he said. So do we.
