Helping us to help

At Finnegan Tools we have always been interested in animal welfare but since we found that millions of donkeys and horses are used and needed for many jobs in poor communities, now we care passionately about the 100 million working equines around the developing world.

The mostly hot and difficult working conditions can be very tough and animals can suffer injuries while working.

Unfortunately, not only these animals suffer injuries but every day they must face several problems including:

  1. Overwork and exhaustion;
  2. Lack of proper health care;
  3. Malnutrition and inadequate feeding;
  4. Harsh living conditions;
  5. Inadequate infrastructure including poor carts and bad roads;
  6. Lack of education and poor welfare awareness by the owners.

Lack of education and poor welfare awareness is nearly the centre of all problems, especially when owners may not be aware of proper animal care and humane handling practices.

Leading to intentional mistreatment and we are committed to change this.

One problem we have found is that many of these resilient animals work using poorly made harnesses…

Our work is centred to the transference of technology through education and the increase of husbandry practices to improve the welfare of these working horses and donkeys.

Supporting welfare education sustainably is a must as horses and donkeys are an asset to the owners, vital to their family existence.

In order to support established small welfare education groups serving communities, mainly in Africa, we became a registered social enterprise, under the name Finnegan Tools CIC (Community Interest Company) with registration number NI695460.

We are committed to use all profits from the sales of Finnegan Tools Hoof stands to support as many already establish welfare groups with likewise mission and vision, forming partnership to transfer technology and education programmes to apply the technology locally.

In the last 2 years we have been piloting our different tools with the training and development non-profit organisation amaTrac uluntu which aims echoes our mission of ensuring sustainable changes by supporting self-help, independence, and reciprocity.

Receiving this feedback from amaTrac uluntu makes all our effort worthwhile and encourages us to help more organisation throughout the developing world:

“Donkey owners struggled to weave the material to make the straps for the harnesses until Patrick Finnegan of Finnegan Tools (UK) greatly assisted us with designing a simple weaving tool and toggle buttons for joining the strips and donating samples to amaTrac uluntu. Owners manage easily with the simple weaving tool.”

We have been carrying all tools testing test using the profits of the sales of our hoof stands, but also, we have used our own salary and pension money, and while have made great strides in our efforts to help more animals and families in need, we still have a lot to accomplish.

We need your help to continue pursuing our mission. That is why we would like you to consider donation to our mission. Today, through our unique partnership with inmates from the Northern Ireland prison system, youth clubs and church groups along with the established local animal welfare charities as our facilitator training groups overseas, we can guarantee that every hoof stand sold, or every £20.00 donated to Finnegan tools, will provide the training materials, the tools and raw materials to be able to manufacture a set of locally made, humane, low friction harness, for a family working donkey or horse in the developing world we need you.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us, we would be more than happy to provide you with additional information about how you too can support this very needed work in poor developing countries.

We greatly appreciate any support you can give us.

Kindest regards, Laura and Paddy Finnegan

Empowering busy hands across Africa To IMPROVE LIVES

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